ᐅ Costs of Paving a Garden Path or Parking Space Yourself

Hello,

we would like to pave the garden path and the parking space ourselves (or is that a bad idea?); the area to be paved is about 50 sqm (540 sq ft); I estimated roughly 900 EUR for the paving stones – plus there’s also gravel/crushed stone and all the other necessary materials...

Does anyone have experience with this? What do you need, what are the approximate costs, and how many working hours (own labor) should we roughly expect? (We are reasonably handy)

Thanks!!!

Nilorac schrieb:
Then there’s gravel/crushed stone and all sorts of other stuff...

(We’re not exactly unskilled at handiwork)

Hello!

I have some doubts about that – forget gravel real quick. Otherwise, instructions would be a bit too extensive to cover here. Basically, the price sounds like concrete pavers – and I wouldn’t put those in my garden. But the basic idea of doing it yourself is good.

And regarding the timeframe: It ALWAYS takes longer than expected.

Best regards,
TomTom1

We paved the garage ourselves: concrete edge stones, 20 pieces at €6 each; a petrol-powered plate compactor rented for about €40 for one day. Concrete stones were not that expensive for us; coarse gravel was included, then about 3 tons of fine gravel for €30 (picked up ourselves – there is a gravel pit on almost every corner here). Fine sand for washing in the joints cost €10 (also picked up ourselves).

Time required: 2 people for 2 days (including pickup and other tasks). For the corners where larger stones didn’t fit (we used 20x20 cm (8x8 inches) and 10x20 cm (4x8 inches) stones), we laid smaller cobblestones and also filled and sanded them.

Our parking spaces – about 70 sqm (750 sq ft) – were laid by a professional company in around 4 hours, just as a rough comparison.

The garden path and parking area must be drained on our property, so drainage systems were necessary, which we could not install ourselves.

Maybe you can find a landscape gardener who can give you some advice on what you can do yourself? We had one who told me, for example, what I should do, and he did the rest. For example, he handled the initial excavation and removal of the soil. That was already more than enough for me.