5 min read
Published by Garden Space London. Guidance should be checked against the site conditions and current requirements for the property.
The short answer
Our range for porcelain paving is £165–£255 per m², supplied and laid. That is a figure per square metre of finished paving, and it is the starting point for the written quotation that follows a site survey.
As a rough illustration of paving area alone: a 20 m² patio falls between about £3,300 and £5,100, and a 30 m² terrace between about £4,950 and £7,650. Those are multiplications, not quotes — steps, walls, drainage channels and lighting are not paving, so they sit outside a per-square-metre figure and are priced on their own.
Why a range rather than one number? Because two patios of identical size can be very different jobs. One sits behind a house with a wide side gate on level ground; the other is reached only through a hallway, needs a step down to meet the house and has a mature tree two metres from the edge. The tile can be exactly the same and the work is not.
What a square metre of porcelain is actually paying for
The visible slab is the smallest part of a well-built patio. Underneath it is the build-up that decides whether the surface is still level in ten years, and on London clay that build-up does most of the work.
- Excavation and spoil
- Digging down to firm formation and taking the spoil away. In a rear garden with no side access every barrow of it goes through the house, which is labour, protection and time.
- Sub-base
- A compacted aggregate layer over a separation membrane, laid in layers rather than dumped to depth in one go. Its depth is set by the ground found on the day, not by a standard figure.
- Priming and full bedding
- Porcelain is non-porous, so every slab is primed with a slurry bond and laid on a full wet mortar bed. Spot-bedding on five dabs is cheaper and is the single most common reason tiles rock and crack.
- The porcelain itself
- 20mm external porcelain with an outdoor slip rating. Price varies by range, finish and format, but it is rarely what separates a cheap quote from a sound one.
- Cutting and jointing
- Cuts around drains, edges, curves and thresholds, then brush-in or slurry jointing and a final clean. Intricate layouts take far longer than simple ones.
What pushes a patio towards the top of the range
Access is the biggest single factor on a London job. A through-the-house carry changes how big a slab can be moved, whether a mixer can get in, and how many trips every tonne of spoil and sub-base takes.
Levels come next. A garden that slopes away from the house, or a patio that must finish 150mm below the damp-proof course while meeting a lawn higher up, means cutting away or building up — sometimes with a retaining edge — before any paving starts.
Large-format tiles (1200mm and longer) look calmer but need a flatter bed and more handling care. Circles, curves, inlays and diagonal patterns multiply the cutting. Clay close to mature trees, or ground that has been disturbed before, can call for a deeper sub-base than the survey would otherwise suggest.
What keeps it towards the bottom
Open side access wide enough for a barrow, a site that is already close to level, a simple rectangular layout and a standard format such as 900×600 all keep the labour down. None of them means compromising on the build-up — they simply mean less time spent getting materials in and spoil out, and less cutting once laying starts.
Why a much cheaper quote is usually cheaper
When a porcelain quote comes in well below the range, the saving is almost always underground. The common ones are a thinner sub-base, no separation membrane, spot-bedding instead of a full bed, and skipping the primer. None of these is visible on the day the patio is finished, and all of them tend to show within a couple of winters on London clay.
The other frequent gap is drainage. A patio needs a fall to shed water away from the house — roughly 1:80 — and a level-threshold door usually needs a linear channel. Leaving those out makes a quote look better and a patio work worse.
How to compare two quotes fairly
Ask each contractor the same questions and compare the answers, not just the totals. A quote that cannot answer them has not really been priced from your garden.
- Depth and type of sub-base
- Is it stated, and is there a membrane beneath it?
- Bedding method
- Full wet bed with a primed slab back, or dabs?
- The exact tile
- Range, format, thickness and slip rating — not just "porcelain".
- Falls and drainage
- Which way the water goes, and whether a channel drain is included at the door.
- Spoil removal and access
- Whether taking waste away is included and how the house will be protected.
- What is excluded
- Steps, edging, walls, lighting and planting — so you are comparing like with like.
- How much does porcelain paving cost per m² in London?
- Typically £165–£255 per square metre, supplied and laid. Where a particular patio lands in that range depends on access, levels, the tile format and how much cutting the layout needs; a site survey fixes the figure.
- Is porcelain more expensive than natural stone paving?
- Not necessarily. The tile is only one part of the cost, and the preparation underneath is similar for both. Porcelain needs priming and a full bed because it is non-porous; natural stone varies more in thickness and takes more time to lay true. Compare full quotes for the same area rather than the price of the slabs.
- Does the price include removing the old patio?
- Breaking out an existing patio is part of the excavation, and it is priced from what the survey finds — the thickness of the old slab and its base, and how the waste leaves the garden. The written quotation states whether it is included.
- Why do I need a site survey before a price?
- Because the factors that move the cost — access, levels, ground conditions and drainage — cannot be judged from photographs. A price given before anyone has seen the garden either carries a large margin for the unknown or gets revised once work starts.