Anyone building a new house would also like to make their driveway, courtyard and paths beautiful. Paving stones are ideal for this. But which plasters made of which material, in which color and at what cost?
At the moment we are thinking more and more about the outdoor facilities in addition to the actual house construction. Here it is not just the high costs that cause us problems, the countless possibilities and decisions are not exactly easy for us. We could tackle the topic of paving work in peace next year, but it’s nice when you already have a driveway that is ready when you move in. In addition, you save yourself dirty shoes, as the danger of mud and mud puddles is averted in autumn and spring.
Find suitable paving stones
Anyone who thinks that the subject of cobblestones is a simple one is vastly mistaken. Of course you can have your property paved with the rather cheap bone pavement, lawn grating or gray rectangles, but we dare to doubt whether you will enjoy it so much. Especially when you are laying in front of your new house for the first time, you want it to look particularly chic. And so there are many possibilities in terms of shape, color, material and laying pattern.
In order to find the right stones for us, we scoured all the surrounding hardware stores, looked around the neighbourhood and were in a sample exhibition. Around the corner , which has a model park with their available paving stones.
On the one hand, we were able to rule out some combinations due to the rather expensive price per square meter; on the other hand, instead of the very widespread reddish autumn leaf colors, we want to go in the gray direction. But not just one color that covers the whole area, mix different shades of gray in light and dark. Even if the exhibition offers a whole lot of examples of paving, there were only two interesting types of stone for us.
These stones are also offered in our local hardware store Bauunion Neuenhagen, so we asked for an offer right away. Due to the different sizes and colors, depending on the type, different prices per square meter come together, but since we will mix these, we end up with a total of around 18 euros per square meter. Not a cheap price for the patch, but happily acceptable after all the prices we’ve seen so far …
In the neighborhood we also saw this paved driveway that we like very much:
Unfortunately, we do not yet know what the exact names of the stones that have been laid. Maybe I just have to ring the bell 🙂
Laying costs for paving stones
Just buying the plasters is of course not enough, because they still have to be laid properly. You can sometimes do it yourself, but it should be tidy and last a long time – so we’d rather let the professionals do it.
Our plaster range now looks like this in detail:
- Deliver and install recycled material – € 8.90 / m²
- Delivery and installation of installation chippings – € 3.50 / m²
- Laying the existing pavement, including cutting, sanding and shaking – 12.50 € / m²
- Lateral edging of the pavement surface as a border or edge runner in concrete – € 12.50 / running meter
- Create a stair landing in the entrance area with palisades + 1 step – 2.8 m² for € 600.00
Warning: those were 2012 prices. Due to inflation and co, these should now be higher.
The pure paving work is not even the most expensive, the high costs are also caused by the substrate and material to be adapted, as well as the side edging and required stair landings in the entrance area. If you now calculate all of this on an area of over 100 m², the paving costs are quite high. Additionally, the actual costs of the paving stones are not included here, although these are € 18 / m² for us.
Total, depending on the space required, you have to budget at least 5,000 – 8,000 euros. In the case of special features, even more. In addition, the costs per executing company fluctuate immensely, which can make the whole thing more expensive.
Update: paving stones for driveway
Meantime we have also paved our driveway and the area in front of the property. Here are a few details with photos: Paving work with Tegula plan , or a few impressions below:
