Replacing a large lawn with patio or resin: reasonable idea and cost?

[Happydays777]

DH has decided he wants rid of the garden and replace it with patio / resin. The grass lawn is about 70 square meters in total. It's rather a large garden and DH struggles to do it as it needs cutting every 2 weeks in summer. He's never been a gardener but likes to keep the grass nice. We have seen some nice block paved drives and resin drives. We got a quote and it was 20k to do a block pave drive and put a drain and a gate in and a gravelboard wall up. I must admit the idea sounds good and so does the company. The manager was great and very friendly. We asked another contraactor but we didn't go with them as he said he won't know how much it costs and said to give him money to buy materials without a quote in writing just asked for upfront money. I said to DH we should get a few quotes as we have no clue re: prices. some like in picture. WWYD? Pay it or get some quotes? DH just wants to go for it.. Or leave grass?

Grass all the way. Slabs, resin etc are so bad for the environment.

Definitely get other quotes. Look at their social media for examples of their work

£20k will buy you a fair bit of grass cutting services.

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Grass. Grass doesn't need to be mowed - put in stepping stones to get to wherever you need to then just strim the path every once in a while.
Gradually allow clovers, chamomiles and buttercups to fill it.
Our wildlife needs it so desperately.

Your garden will also stay cooler during any heatwaves with grass.

Grass. It's cleaner and cooler. A solid surface increases the heat and flood risk.

Grass and a robot mower!

You could have it reseeded with micro clover, it doesn't grow tall and is very low maintenance. Look online for "micro clover lawn" for ideas.

My lawn is doing this by itself as the cover and moss spreads, so it doesn't need mowing much. Your ideas for hard landscaping may seem low maintenance, but wedding them can be back-breaking work. Much harder than mowing the grass. Our, as a previous poster said, look into getting a grass cutting service. If you have the tools, you may find a local teenager is happy for the work over the summer.

Grass! Think of the bees, the birds, the need for drainage, the need for rainfall to soak away. The need for pollinators, the joy of looking at grass and flowers rather than block paving. Crikey. Revel in what you have. And buy a robot mower With GPS for about £3k and never look
back…

Grass.

Even at £20 a cut by a gardener the cost gets you 1000 mows!

"a block pave drive and put a drain and a gate in and a gravelboard wall"

Jesus Christ, that's going to look like a prison exercise yard or a slaughterhouse.

The grass is only 8m by 8m. You'll get someone to cut that once every two weeks for £25 a pop. You could have the lawn cut every two weeks from April to November for 50 years for the £20k cost of the prison exercise yard.

Poor nature. No wonder the bloody country floods and wildlife is declining

I’m not a fan of grass; I’d rather have plants. However, grass hands down beats hardscaping. I second a PP who suggested a robot lawnmower.

Awful..what would you even consider this? I just dont understand how little regard so many people have for the environment and wildlife.

That picture you posted of the paved space is so sad. Like a prison yard.

Apart from the unhappiness of having to live with it, are you not worried about how it will drive down your property value?

Second worst thing you could do, the worst being plastic grass.
And if he is struggling to mow every two weeks, think how much of a struggle it will be to stay on top of weeding and power washing it.

I agree with the pp, get a lawn service.
Or swap chores and you mow while he does something else.

LTB

Just pay someone to mow it. You will devalue your house.

Weeding block paving is one of the most tortuous and labour intensive garden jobs. (assuming he won't just spray it with some hideous chemicals).

He's also going to get really fed up when the his power washer chases all the sand out from the paving and blocks the drain.

I found our robot mower a game changer, so easy to maintain the grass

It will need more looking after than you think e.g. sweeping, repointing. As a PP says, I would keep the lawn and buy a robot mower for £300ish instead.

I was going to say exactly this. You couldn’t pay me £20k to get rid of my lawn.

How lazy is your husband that he can’t be arsed to mow his lawn once every two weeks in the summer that he is prepared to pay 20k to pave it, not only does it look absolutely hideous, destroys wildlife, causes flooding, devalues your house but within a month he will be wishing all he had to do was mow a lawn compared to being on his hands and knees removing weeds, power washing and sweeping up leaves and debris, oh and your garden will feel like a sauna and look like a previous poster has said a prison yard.

Ask local agents how much this will decrease the value of the property.

Obviously get more quotes. Get at least 3. Do not pay until the job is complete.

And I agree with PP, just hire a gardener to mow the lawn. It’s a habitat. And my paving is way harder to keep nice - constant weeds and moss!

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