Stone patio really costs $15K?

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davebo
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by davebo »

I did a Unilock patio back in 2019 and got 3 quotes. For $19K, we ended up with about 700 SF patio/walkway, 2 steps to patio door, and then a firepit.

One thing I will say is that the steps, ledge, and firepits are way more than you would expect, in particular the ledge.

I'd get a couple more quotes and see how they come in, also let them know you are flexible with the instal date. Personally I got quotes in the fall and got in lined up for the following spring. That seems to be the best time.
tim1999
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by tim1999 »

Personally I'd wait until the next recession to hire someone to do this project.

Also, since I am not a high earner and $15k isn't chump change to me, I'd put some thought into how much I would really use this sort of thing. I wouldn't do it unless I had an established pattern of hosting parties at home where my family and guests would actually use this patio/pit. I know there are a lot of tech and doctor types here that make 15k gross every two weeks and wouldn't think twice about doing it, but that's not me.
Johnny Thinwallet
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by Johnny Thinwallet »

We just rebuilt our 400 square foot composite deck last summer. There's a lengthy thread about it here on BH. Anyway, short story is it took 9 months to find our contractor, because all the previous contractors on the job bid way too high and only one of them was semi-serious. The semi-serious guy came in at $28k while all the others were higher than that up to $44k. These bids were all-in - they would provide materials. And from what I gather they were padding margins pretty substantially on materials.

The contractor we finally hired suggested to us that he simply provide us a labor quote and then we go out and purchase our own materials. This was the smart move for us. That way we knew what we were getting at the exact price we were paying. Our contractor appreciated this too, because as he said he didn't have to worry about extreme price shifts. We saw just price shopping ourselves a 20 percent range in material costs depending on the supplier. He spent about an hour with us working through some initial items we'd need so we could make a list and sketch things out. I will note that he lived about 1 mile away from us, and yes, he did acknowledge that really likes it when his jobs are close by.

It also helped that the local lumber company we purchased our materials from had an outstanding team of specialized sales guys. I took photos of our area, sketched out what we wanted and those guys educated us on all our options and what we'd need. No hard selling, none of that. I'd definitely shop with them again.

We believe our contractor did a nice job too. I told him upfront to please do things the right way, and I'm willing to spend more money on better quality materials and more time to do it right. One key adjustment he recommended during the project was going with 12 inch joists rather than 16 inch joists. It required more lumber, but he gave his suggestion on it and I said "let's do it!"

Total cost for the project with this route = $21k. That sure beat the $28k-$44k range we were looking at previously.

In addition to the project getting done for less money, I believe the quality was as good if not better than those other quotes. I also now have a contractor I'd definitely hire again. I also have a lumber/home remodel supply company I'd definitely work with too. So really lots of wins ... even if it did take 9 months to figure it all out.
Circe
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by Circe »

The photo looks pretty but there's not a ton of room to walk around the chairs or add chairs, so maybe a little larger?

I have a Belgian block driveway, several sets of stairs, retaining walls and walkways. There is also a block patio. I bought the house a few years ago and the work was done about 15 years ago. There are places where the blocks are uneven. The driveway is in pretty good shape (no weeds) although some blocks were moved by tree roots. I removed the 2 big trees. Some of the sidewalks and the patio have grass or weeds in between the blocks and it's really frustrating to keep them out. Some of the blocks will have to be re-set. I had some of them re-set when I first moved in and power washed everything and put in new polymeric sand. The weeds and algae are back.

Neighbors are getting a new stamped concrete patio, which I agree with from a maintenance standpoint. I'll have more work done when prices come down in a year or so. The place looks good but it's a lot of work to keep it looking that way. I also have a portable fire pit; some people love them but many of us don't use them. They might be the Peloton bike of outdoor accessories.
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Go Blue 99
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by Go Blue 99 »

We are getting quotes to build a screened porch and patio paver stone area. The company we are talking to said we should use $20-$25 per sq foot as a ballpark for patio pavers.
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GerryL
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by GerryL »

Granted, my patio was installed 12 years ago, but it is larger than yours*. I don't have the measurements, but it extends through 2/3 of my backyard and along the side of the house. Work included removing existing plants and gravel groundcover, installing two low raised beds, a long step along the back of the house and a low retaining wall along much of the width of the yard. "Stone" (concrete) pavers, similar to those in your photo. Total cost was about $15k.

* Very rough estimate is maybe a bit under 1000 sq ft.
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Random Musings
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by Random Musings »

tim1999 wrote: Fri May 13, 2022 11:26 am Personally I'd wait until the next recession to hire someone to do this project.

Also, since I am not a high earner and $15k isn't chump change to me, I'd put some thought into how much I would really use this sort of thing.
👍

Just like the affordability of housing is very high today, so are most home building projects.

RM
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carne_asada
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by carne_asada »

Getting quotes for around $40 a sq ft at the moment - this includes demo of existing patio. Walls are also very pricey.
smatter
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by smatter »

We paid $18 per sqft last April for a new bluestone patio on stone dust + $500 to set up a concrete and stone faced retaining wall - less than $5k all in for 225 sqft. HCOL. These quotes seem absurd.
WhyNotUs
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by WhyNotUs »

OP, please let us know what you learn from a site visit estimate
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WhyNotUs
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by WhyNotUs »

smatter wrote: Fri May 13, 2022 9:13 pm We paid $18 per sqft last April for a new bluestone patio on stone dust + $500 to set up a concrete and stone faced retaining wall - less than $5k all in for 225 sqft. HCOL. These quotes seem absurd.
Congrats, you got a good deal, especially in a HCOL area. It would be 2-3x where I live.
I own the next hot stock- VTSAX
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samsoes
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by samsoes »

heartwood wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 8:35 pm looks like 15 ft diameter circle; about 700 sq ft?

googled "stone patio cost", got "The average cost to install a stone patio ranges from about $3,900 to $15,000 for a 300 square foot area. Regardless of the stone you choose, labor stays right in the $8 to $15 range, mostly depending on where you live. Materials make or break the budget, ranging from $5 to $35 per square foot"

since you're more than twice 300 sq ft, at least double those estimates? Then add to run the gas lines and the partial wall at back,plus the actual firepit and its wall. I'd say you're in the ball park.

LATE EDIT: my thanks to fatcoffeedrinker. Area is closer to 175 sq ft, so my calcs are 4x too large. So, so sorry. I asked google for "area of 15 ft diameter" it returned my original number above. I didn't notice it had changed my request to 15 ft RADIUS.
Ha! Recall your middle school math class: area of a circle = pi * (r^2), r being half the diameter. Google can be deceiving.

(It was 7th grade, I believe.)
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chazas
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by chazas »

iamlucky13 wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 9:20 pm
chazas wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 9:06 pm
iamlucky13 wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 8:51 pm.
chazas wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 8:30 pm I’m looking for 3 large Techoblock pavers to match what I have. I’m told they'll cost more than an entire pallet did 2 years ago.
I'm inclined to suspect part of that is due to custom ordering a specific style that may have been a normally stocked item 2 years ago, but hard to find now. When I do a quick check on Lowes' website, prices on basic or clay pavers look similar to what I remember from the last time I bought any. On the other hand, it's possible higher end products are experiencing more of a shortage.
These are not basic Lowes products and they’re still in the catalog.
Yeah, I figured they're probably not Lowes. That was just the benchmark I had ready for a quick check.

But in the catalog might be different from in-stock at your or your landscaper's supplier. If they're regularly selling a style, it might not a big deal sell to partial pallets since what you don't buy will go to the next customer. If they stopped carrying it last year, and if they can't order less than a full pallet, they might add a bigger markup to account for the risk the rest of the pallet just sits in their yard for a long time.

Just speculating though. If you haven't already, you could try calling other places that carry that brand to see if they can offer a better price. If they have it in stock, they might.
Thanks, but out of stock everywhere. Techoblock doesn’t make products during the winter (found that out 2 years ago when building pool/yard when I had to re-specify three times), so unless and until they gear up for this particular one this year it won’t be anywhere.
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firebirdparts
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by firebirdparts »

I've seen boy scouts do harder projects than that. The bar for a contractor to pull this off is really, really, really low. It's as low as you can go. So I would say correcting for scale they'll say $6000 (not $15,000 divided by 4 unfortunately). Kinda makes me want to build one myself. Your lead-off picture looks great. I have a friend who bought a big stack-up chimney for one, it was in kit form from the big block factory locally. I suppose this is going to be the cheapest imaginable material unless you're picking up rocks out of your own corn fields.

https://generalshale.com/product-catego ... or-living/

I really hate taking care of things like that. Wife is a health nut, we wouldn't be using roundup on anything. Some plant will eventually establish itself. But I shouldn't complain. A little weeding once in a while isn't going to hurt me. I'd probably get some vitamin D out of it.
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PhillyBird
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by PhillyBird »

Thank you everyone who contributed. I finally got someone to come out to the house, talk details (measurements, materials, etc...). This estimate came to $8K.
UnLearnYourself
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by UnLearnYourself »

I got a quote for a stone patio and retaining wall for $27k in 2019. Brought the guy back out in 2021 to refresh the quote and it became over $70k then the stone guy started telling me about how much equity it would add to my house and I could do the patio and sell the house and profit.

Like, wtf are you talking about my equity? Strange days...
raveon
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by raveon »

1. I did a L-shaped patio (~120 sq ft) walkway as a DIY project. A circular pit is not much differnet
2. There are many youtube videos you can watch to understand the process.
3. The end result of my project is shown here (scroll to the bottom for pics): https://www.diychatroom.com/threads/bes ... st-5888061
4. After installation, I waited around 5 months to put down a sealer.
5. The biggest challenge for me was to remove all the hard clay/rock to prep the area. A SDS max hammer drill came in very handle and I did it all by hand (ended up removing about 3-4 cu yards of materials.
6. I used Calstone pavers and TechniSeal sealer.

Here is the complete cost breakdown:
Landscape fabric 5/30/2021 $40
Rock removal 5/31/2021 $150
Rock removal 8/15/2021 $150
Pavers/Base/Sand/Edging/Joint Sand/Delivery 9/11/2021 $1,636.79
Plate Compactor Rental 9/18/2021 $75.00
Paver Base 10/1/2021 $45.00
Paver Sand 10/3/2021 $50
8'' nails 10/3/2021 $37
Plate Compactor Rental 10/9/2021 $115
Truck rental 10/9/2021 $93
Brick saw rental 10/16/2021 $87
1 gal paver sealer 3/7/2022 $57
$2,479
It is a very doable / fund DIY project.
dekecarver
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by dekecarver »

One suggestion; whatever you do, lay it out with chalk, paint or cardboard to see if your dimensions actually work for the purpose e.g. walk around table, chairs, grill, etc not confined by walk edge or wall; this is a really important step before going permanent.

Guy up the street built a beautiful patio, ~$65kish that was nice until he put the patio furniture etc. on it; barely enough room to move about; he ended up eliminating some furniture.

On a side note, a lot of golf course cart turnarounds are good examples of form/function/size. Some mathematical formula used to determine turning radius that just doesn't take into account actual use and turning radius of cart steering.
punkinhead
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by punkinhead »

dekecarver wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 5:36 am One suggestion; whatever you do, lay it out with chalk, paint or cardboard to see if your dimensions actually work for the purpose e.g. walk around table, chairs, grill, etc not confined by walk edge or wall; this is a really important step before going permanent.

Guy up the street built a beautiful patio, ~$65kish that was nice until he put the patio furniture etc. on it; barely enough room to move about; he ended up eliminating some furniture.
When we built ours a few years ago my wife insisted on making it almost twice the size I had in mind. I'm glad I listened to her. It's one of the best things we ever did to the house and we pretty much live on it in nice weather.
toomanysidehustles
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by toomanysidehustles »

PhillyBird wrote: Thu May 12, 2022 8:22 pm We're looking to build a stone patio with a fire pit and have gotten two quotes so far. Both quotes came in around $15K. Our budget is half that. I'm including a picture of approximate size/layout of what we're looking for. For those of you who had patios like this built, is $15K a reasonable price? Or am I being taken for a spin in this crazy market/inflation environment? P.S. We live in a medium cost of living area.

Image
This is an $8-10K job where I live in N. Colorado.
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dziuniek
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by dziuniek »

We built a patio with a similar fire pit and a bench in 2020.
Out patio was 20 X 30 feet so sizeable plus a sidewalk to the front of the house (narrow but still).

I paid either 15.5 or 16.k (can't remember which).

This was in Connecticut. Get another quote, seems high, but so does everything else in the last 2 years....
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corn18
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by corn18 »

It's high but not unreasonable.

I just put a firepit like that on my existing patio. I did it myself. It came as a kit (the stone and an inner fire ring). I paid $1500 just for the material. It was $1000 last year but I didn't know if I wanted a moveable fire pit or not so I waited. Then we decided to go with gas vs. wood and that added another $1500 for the burner kit. Yikes!

You can see the firepit in this pic with the wood burning ring in it (this was before I converted it to gas):

Image

Then we decided to add a lower retaining wall to the patio. I got a quote for $12k. I decided to do it myself. My wife was concerned. Took me a month of ridiculously hard work moving many tons of material, but I got er done. Total cost for material was $4400. Would have probably taken the contractor a week to install. Now that it's done, I would never take on a job that big on my own again. But I got in great shape and lost 15 lbs.

Image

Here's a shot this morning from the same security camera:

Image

Clearing back woods: $7000
Grading and sod: $7000
Extend fence: $7000

Seems everything costs $7000 around here.

If you made it this far, I would say $15k is not out of the realm of possible. DIY will be 1/3 of that but a lot of work.
Consistently sets low goals and fails to achieve them.
NYCaviator
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by NYCaviator »

That sounds about right, unfortunately. We got similar quotes for our patio in a HCOL and it was just a simple patio without the lights or wall. And this was before 2020. Make sure you find someone reputable and make sure you read review/look at their work. We saw some very shoddy work when we were shopping around.
Lalamimi
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by Lalamimi »

If possible, I would lay it out, purchase the stone, and grab some workers from the Home Depot parking lot to lay them all out, leaving the circle for the firepit and the area for the seat. Then get a quote, or keep searching for a stone mason. this does not look like any stone cuts are involved. We are do it your selfers when possible.
punkinhead
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by punkinhead »

Lalamimi wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 8:34 am If possible, I would lay it out, purchase the stone, and grab some workers from the Home Depot parking lot to lay them all out, leaving the circle for the firepit and the area for the seat. Then get a quote, or keep searching for a stone mason. this does not look like any stone cuts are involved. We are do it your selfers when possible.
You can't just lay stones on the ground. The site prep and base are the most important parts of the job and they involve heavy equipment.
dmk395
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by dmk395 »

I own a landscape maintenance co. Nonetheless we don't get much into paver patios. I hired a friends company to do a 20x20 with fire pit like you have there, and paid $9,500 last year. For the hell of it I got another quote and it was around 15k. Again...I am in the business so I always get better pricing. Materials are higher priced than ever now, there's a backlog to order and our labor is short.
mecht3ach
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by mecht3ach »

corn18 wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 6:49 am I just put a firepit like that on my existing patio. I did it myself. It came as a kit (the stone and an inner fire ring). I paid $1500 just for the material. It was $1000 last year but I didn't know if I wanted a moveable fire pit or not so I waited. Then we decided to go with gas vs. wood and that added another $1500 for the burner kit. Yikes!
<snip>
Then we decided to add a lower retaining wall to the patio. I got a quote for $12k. I decided to do it myself. My wife was concerned. Took me a month of ridiculously hard work moving many tons of material, but I got er done. Total cost for material was $4400. Would have probably taken the contractor a week to install. Now that it's done, I would never take on a job that big on my own again. But I got in great shape and lost 15 lbs.
Gorgeous work on that! Well done. You should have an amazing feeling of satisfaction every time you use that. Looking at it from a physical fitness POV is awesome, too. When we moved a bit over a year ago, I was shocked by the costs to repaint the inside of our house, and decided to do it myself (+ "help" from the teenagers in painting their rooms). It was exhausting, but I shed a lot of pounds, and my arms ended up looking like Natalie Portman's in the new Thor movie. :wink: :-D
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illumination
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by illumination »

These are exactly the types of projects I'd put on hold until things "normalize". Unfortunately, outfits are shooting the moon and getting it right now. Sort of like there's people that are paying $15k+ over sticker to get a new vehicle if they insist on having one ASAP. I don't believe that's going to be forever.

I just had a good friend get something done on his patio and spent $5k for a job that 3 years ago would have probably a few hundred dollars, basically assembling a prefabricated patio covering. Took a day and no material costs, but he paid it.
Normchad
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Re: Stone patio really costs $15K?

Post by Normchad »

mecht3ach wrote: Sat May 21, 2022 2:39 pm
corn18 wrote: Thu May 19, 2022 6:49 am I just put a firepit like that on my existing patio. I did it myself. It came as a kit (the stone and an inner fire ring). I paid $1500 just for the material. It was $1000 last year but I didn't know if I wanted a moveable fire pit or not so I waited. Then we decided to go with gas vs. wood and that added another $1500 for the burner kit. Yikes!
<snip>
Then we decided to add a lower retaining wall to the patio. I got a quote for $12k. I decided to do it myself. My wife was concerned. Took me a month of ridiculously hard work moving many tons of material, but I got er done. Total cost for material was $4400. Would have probably taken the contractor a week to install. Now that it's done, I would never take on a job that big on my own again. But I got in great shape and lost 15 lbs.
Gorgeous work on that! Well done. You should have an amazing feeling of satisfaction every time you use that. Looking at it from a physical fitness POV is awesome, too. When we moved a bit over a year ago, I was shocked by the costs to repaint the inside of our house, and decided to do it myself (+ "help" from the teenagers in painting their rooms). It was exhausting, but I shed a lot of pounds, and my arms ended up looking like Natalie Portman's in the new Thor movie. :wink: :-D
I did something like this about 15 years ago and said I’d never DIY it again. But at these prices, I’m tempted to DIY it again in my next house.
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