Resin patio cost in Dublin and Kildare, and whether one suits your garden

Delaney Tarmac lays resin bound surfaces at €150 to €250 per square metre in Dublin, all-in. The figure covers taking up what is there, building and compacting the base, the edging, the resin and stone, and the labour to mix and trowel it. Where a patio lands in the range depends mostly on the ground under it, which is checked on the visit. Patios in Kildare, Wicklow, Laois and Offaly are priced the same way, from the visit, out of Delaney's base at Newbridge.

What moves the price of a resin patio

• The ground under it. A solid concrete slab with no movement can sometimes take resin with little preparation. Old paving slabs, a cracked base or a lawn mean digging out and building a new compacted base first, and that is where most of the cost goes.
• Getting to the back garden. A front drive can be reached by a digger and a lorry. A back garden often cannot, so the dig-out and the stone go through a side passage by barrow or small machine, and that time is in the price.
• The edge. Resin has to finish against something firm. A plain edge costs less than a granite border or a band of setts, which is priced by the metre on the visit.
• The levels at the house. The finished surface has to sit below the damp course and fall away from the back door, so the house sets the dig depth as much as the garden does.
• The stone blend. Delaney uses Vuba resin and aggregates, and some blends cost more than others. The blend is chosen from samples, not from a screen.

The base decides whether a resin patio lasts

Resin is often sold as a quick topping for a tired patio. Paul Delaney, who has 45 years in the trade, puts the problem plainly:

"There is a perception that resin or porcelain is just a finish you bolt onto an existing surface"

Paul Delaney, Delaney Tarmac

Laid over loose slabs or a base that moves, resin follows every joint and dip underneath and cracks along them. So the work starts below. The old surface comes up unless it is sound, the base is built and compacted to suit the ground, and the edges are set before any resin is mixed.

"The base is everything. If the sub-base is wrong, the whole thing fails inside three years."

Paul Delaney, Delaney Tarmac

Resin or porcelain for a patio: the pros and cons

Delaney lays both, so the comparison comes from one firm's prices. Porcelain patios from Delaney cost €110 to €200 per square metre, all-in, against €150 to €250 for resin bound. The rest comes down to how the garden is used.

• Resin bound drains through. Rain soaks down through the surface into the base, so there is no standing water and there are no joints for weeds to come up through.
• Resin follows any shape. Curves, a step down to the lawn and an awkward corner are laid in one piece, with no cut slabs.
• Porcelain gives large, clean slabs that wipe down easily and suit a modern back garden with straight lines.
• Resin needs a dry spell to lay, and the mix has to be measured and trowelled by a crew that does it often. A poor mix shows straight away.

Resin bonded, where loose stone is scattered onto a coat of resin, is a different product. It does not drain through and stone can come away over time. Delaney lays resin bound, and the difference between resin bound and resin bonded is worth knowing before comparing quotes. If porcelain suits the garden better, what a porcelain patio costs comes down mostly to the slab and the base.

Colours, borders and the finish at the door

The colour is picked from Vuba samples held up against the house, the walls and any paving that stays. A granite border frames the resin and gives it a firm edge, and along a house wall it can widen into an apron, so the resin meets stone rather than render. Choosing a blend starts with resin colours and finishes and the colour of the brick or render it sits against.

A worked example

Take a large back garden patio of 50 square metres. At Delaney's resin bound rate of €150 to €250 per square metre, all-in, that comes to €7,500 to €12,500. The lower end is a sound base, easy access and a plain edge. The upper end is a full dig-out, a new base, a granite border and every barrow of stone wheeled through a side passage. Most patios are smaller than that, and the visit puts the figure in writing. For a drive rather than a patio, what a resin driveway costs is worked out the same way.