Why we're not the cheapest quote you'll get

Block paving in the UK is designed to BS 7533-101:2021, the British Standard for the structural design of pavements built from modular paving units. The sub-base material itself — what everyone calls MOT Type 1 — is defined by Clause 803 of the Specification for Highway Works, the Department for Transport's own specification.

What neither of those is, is a single number you can check a quote against. So here is the number the trade actually works to, from Pavingexpert, the most widely used construction reference in UK paving:

Two things fall out of that table.

The first is that we build half as much again as the published domestic guidance. That is a deliberate choice and it is most of why our number is higher. On clay ground, we would rather have the depth than the argument.

The second is more useful to you. A 75mm sub-base under a driveway is not a cheaper driveway. It is a footpath specification with cars parked on it. If a quote you are holding is built to 75mm, that is not a matter of opinion or house style — it is below the published guidance for the job it is being asked to do.

Type 1 loses volume under the plate, so you always lay more than you finish with. Pavingexpert's rule of thumb is around 30%: 195mm laid loose gives you about 150mm compacted, and 130mm loose gives about 100mm.

On a two-car drive of about 40m², that is the whole gap in three lines:

Type 1 runs at roughly 2 tonnes per cubic metre. So against a footpath-spec quote, ours includes something like seven and a half tonnes more stone going in, three cubic metres more spoil coming out, the lorry movements for both, and a separate compaction pass per layer — because it has to go down in layers and be whacked each time. Tipping the lot in and running over the top gives you a base compacted only in its top few inches.

Put a price against those lines and you have most of the difference between two quotes sitting in front of you. It is not a mystery and it is not a judgement about anyone's character.

Every one of those decisions disappears within a week. Once the blocks are down, 75mm and 150mm look identical, and they go on looking identical for a year or two. When it finally shows, it shows as dips where the car turns, blocks starting to rock, and joints opening at the edges — and by then it is a rebuild rather than a repair, because relaying on a base that already failed just moves the dip.

So the honest weakness of everything above is that any contractor can say it. We could write “150mm compacted Type 1” on a quote, put in 75mm, and you would have no way of ever knowing.

That is the actual reason we photograph it.

Every job is recorded at excavation, sub-base, compaction and finish, with the depths and materials written down, and handed to you as a PDF at the end. Not a gallery of finished driveways — the stages you were never going to see, with a tape in the shot. It is yours to keep, and it goes with the house if you sell.

That is the difference between a claim and a receipt.

We would rather say this than pretend it never happens.

If your existing concrete or tarmac is genuinely sound — no cracking, no movement — an overlay is a legitimate job and costs far less than a full excavation. Anyone insisting on digging out a sound base is selling you work you do not need.

If the area is ornamental and never carries a car, 75mm is the correct specification for it, and paying for a vehicular build-up is money set on fire.

And if the lowest quote you have answers those three lines properly, it is not cheap. It is just cheaper than us, and you should take it.

The dig to depth. A geotextile membrane. 150mm of Clause 803 Type 1 in compacted layers. Sharp sand, not building sand. Edges haunched in concrete. Kiln-dried sand vibrated into every joint. Falls set so water leaves on your land rather than the highway. And the finished level at least 150mm below your damp proof course — which is not our preference but Building Regulations Part C, section 5.5.

Then: a fixed price that does not move — if we have mis-measured, that is our problem rather than a variation on your invoice. Ten years on the sub-base and ten on the surface, so settlement is covered rather than excluded, and it transfers with the property. And the build record, so none of the above is something you have to take on trust.