Rambling Rose

We have an area of about 140 sq metres between our garage door and the top of our driveway that the builder finished in tiny stone chippings. These stick in shoes & dog paws and get trailed into the house where they scratch the tiles.

We are trying to get quotes for concrete stamping to cover the area. There seem to me loads of companies advertising this service - a bit like double glazing companies in the UK.

Has anyone had this done who could give me some pointers? I would like to get some idea of a reasonable price for this work. We've had one quote so far which was the distance to the moon and as soon as we said no they immediately knocked 1,000 euros of the price - which still seems high.

All advice gratefully received

Rose

Threemonkeys

Worked in the uk for company doing imprinted driveways, i myself not a great lover, impressive at first but as it's downfalls. If it cracks extremely hard to repair without being visible as you have to try and match the colour and pattern, not maintenance free as always quoted, Drainage where's the water going to go, as you say there's alot of firms around it's finding one that's good.
Have you thought about paving slab's, depending on the amount of preparation, slabs at 7.50 m2, shouldn't be far wrong at 45 euro's a m2 materials and labour as a guide.

Mitzyboy

Yep, paving slabs of some kind would be the answer .... lot of people around here have used tiles but they have to be levelled so the water runs off.

Rambling Rose

Thanks for the replies and advice. I take the point about repairs. The company we've contacted is proposing a 10 cm deep base with mesh reinforcement. The area concerned slopes away from the house and there are ridges and drainage channels built into the existing driveway so water won't be a problem.

I was hoping someone would know how much haggling is acceptable with this type of company. We've managed to get them to knock 1,000 euros of so far but could do with a bit more.

Rose

malagaman

We had this done last year and are very pleased with it. As with everything it's all down to preparation to get a good result. Ours was done with a 8 cm base with steel mesh, and a 6cm concrete finish. As long as there are plenty of 'expansion joints' cut into it then there shouldn't be any problems with cracking etc. We had approx 120 sq mtrs done and it worked out at 32 euros per metre. The end result is fantastic and at least you won't have the worry of movement/cracking as you do with slabs.

Hillybilly

Cheaper isn't necessarily better. If you can get them to cut their price, they may cut corners! You pays your money...

Rambling Rose

I agree Hillbilly, but their first quote worked out at 46 euros per sq metre which we thought was a bit steep. We are hoping to get them to do it for about 35 which is closer to the price Malagaman paid.

They do seem quite keen to get the work, perhaps due to the slowdown in the building trade.

Rose