Block Paving & Edging: price per m² 2026 and installation steps

Whether your block paving lasts for decades or starts to ripple after the first winter depends on what lies underneath. The blocks only spread the load. The compacted layers of aggregate below them carry it down into the ground. When dips, sunken patches or opening joints appear, the cause is almost always in the sub-base, not in the blocks.

From the bottom up, a typical build-up looks like this:

• Prepared formation: first remove the topsoil and any soft ground. Trim the base of the dig to the required falls and compact it. If you have clay soil, lay a geotextile membrane on top. It keeps the soil and the aggregate apart so they do not mix over time.
• Sub-base: coarse crushed aggregate, often sold as Type 1 or a similar graded material. The sharp, angular stones lock together and compact firmly. Under paths and patios, around 15 to 25 cm is common in practice. A driveway for cars needs considerably more, often 30 cm or thicker depending on the ground.
• Laying course: a thin layer of fine crushed grit that the blocks sit in. You screed it with a straightedge to the exact level, and after that nobody walks on it.
• Blocks and jointing sand: once the blocks are down, you vibrate them in and fill the joints with sand.

Compact the aggregate in layers, never the full depth in one go. A plate compactor only reaches so far down. If you tip in a thick layer all at once, only the top gets compacted and the bottom stays loose. Avoid rounded river gravel for the sub-base. The stones roll against each other and never compact reliably.

Water has to run off the paving. If it soaks into the sub-base, frost will break it up in winter. That is why the surface is laid to a fall, usually around 1 to 2%, away from the house towards a spot where water can soak away or drain off. Build the fall into the formation and the sub-base, not into the laying course. That way every layer keeps an even thickness.

In front of a garage, at the front door and on larger areas, fit channel drains. Rainwater from your paving should not run onto a neighbour's property or onto a public road. Where the ground allows, the simplest answer is to let it soak into the surrounding lawn and beds, or into a soakaway on your own plot.

Do you only park on the area now and then, for example when visitors come? Then grass reinforcement grids or permeable paving can work well. Water passes straight through into the ground and the area stays partly green. For a driveway you use every day, they are less comfortable underfoot and harder to clear of snow.

Before you start digging, think about everything that might need to run under the paving. Once the surface is finished, you cannot get a cable or pipe under it without lifting blocks. So lay ducts in the excavation now: power to the gate and gate motor, outdoor lighting, a doorbell, cameras, irrigation. Do it even if you do not need them yet. Draw or photograph the route and measure it from fixed points, such as the corner of the house. The electrical connections themselves must be made by a qualified electrician.

Also check before you dig whether any existing services cross the plot: gas, water, drains or cables. Many countries have a utility location service or plans you can request from the network operators. If you damage a gas pipe while digging or you smell gas, leave the area, do not use naked flames or electrical devices, and call the local emergency number or 112. Any work on gas pipes is a job for a qualified, registered gas engineer.

A parking space for a car should be around 2.5 m wide and around 5 m long. If you park next to a wall or fence, add room to open the doors. On a driveway, think about the turning circle too. Will the car turn round on the plot, or will you reverse straight out onto the road?

Next to the house, the paving must not come up above the damp-proof course at the base of the wall. Otherwise splashback from rain and melting snow would get into the masonry. Along the walls, lay the paving falling away from the house. Leave a narrow gravel strip between the paving and the plinth, or protect the plinth with a non-absorbent finish.

Block paving holds together through friction between the blocks and the sand in the joints. At the edges, though, it has nothing to push against. Without kerbs, it slowly spreads outwards under load. That is why kerbs go in before any blocks are laid. They also set the levels and falls for the whole area.

Garden edgings are lower and narrower. They are enough for paths, patios and around the garden. Road kerbs belong on driveways, parking areas and anywhere a car might drive over the edge. Set the kerb on a concrete bed and back it with a concrete haunch on the side facing the lawn or soil. A kerb that is only backfilled with soil gets pushed over bit by bit by the pressure of the paving and by passing wheels.

You can also use a row of paving blocks set in concrete instead of a kerb. The edge then looks more discreet, but the concrete bed and haunch are just as necessary.

Choose the block thickness by what will walk or drive on it. Paths and patios usually get blocks 4 to 6 cm thick, most often 6 cm. A driveway or parking for cars needs 8 cm, and heavier vehicles 10 cm. Thin blocks on a driveway crack and shift, even on a good sub-base.

Where cars drive, the shape and pattern matter as well. Interlocking shaped blocks and bonded patterns such as herringbone cope better with braking and turning wheels than rectangular blocks laid in stripes in the direction of travel. Large-format slabs look modern, but on a driveway they crack and rock more easily.

• Durability: if you plan to salt the driveway or path in winter, choose blocks the manufacturer declares as resistant to frost and de-icing salt.
• Surface: smooth and finely ground finishes are more slippery when wet or icy than shot-blasted or textured ones.
• Colour: shades vary slightly between production batches. When laying, take blocks from several pallets at once, mixing as you go. Otherwise you will see patches across the area.

White efflorescence is not a defect

New concrete paving often shows white patches or a chalky haze in the first months. This is lime efflorescence. It forms naturally as the concrete cures and water carries dissolved calcium to the surface. It is not a fault in the blocks. Rain and normal use usually wash it away on their own within a year or two. Do not attack it with strong acids, as they damage the surface.

Work forwards from the blocks you have already laid, so you never step on the screeded laying course. Leave the laying course slightly high before compaction, because the blocks settle a little when vibrated. Place the blocks tightly side by side with a narrow joint for sand, and keep checking the rows against a string line.

Leave cutting until you reach the edges and obstacles. Small cut pieces at the edge break out easily, so plan the layout to avoid thin slivers next to the kerb. Cut with a bench saw or a disc cutter with water suppression. Dry cutting concrete releases fine dust containing silica, which damages your lungs when you breathe it in.

Compact the finished area with a plate compactor fitted with a rubber or plastic pad. The pad protects the surface from scratches and the edges from chipping. Spread dry sand over the joints, brush it in and vibrate again. Repeat until the joints are full. The sand keeps settling over the first few weeks, so topping it up later is normal maintenance, not a sign that something went wrong.

On a sloping plot, changes in level are handled with palisades, low retaining walls or steps. Set palisades in a concrete foundation as deep as they will stand above the ground. Taller palisades hold back the pressure of the soil, and without a proper foundation they start to lean. Drain the water from behind any retaining element. Wet soil after rain pushes much harder than dry soil.

Outdoor steps made of paving or palisades need a solid concrete foundation, and every riser should be the same height. Give the treads a slight fall so that water does not stand on them and turn to ice in winter.

Whether you need to notify anyone or get approval for a paved area on your own land depends on its size and on how it changes the way rainwater runs off. This is set by local building regulations, which differ from place to place. Do not assume you can simply go ahead. Check with your local building authority before work starts. In some areas, new driveways must be permeable or drain onto your own land. If the area belongs to a block of flats, agree the work first with the building management or the owners' association.

Creating or changing an access from a public road is a separate matter. Permission comes from the authority responsible for the road, which for local roads is usually the local council. It often involves lowering the kerb on the public side, and this is normally done or approved by the council. The access also has to settle where the water from your paving goes and how your kerb meets the edge of the road.

If your paving has sunk in a small area or a few blocks have come loose, you do not need to lift the whole surface. You can usually manage the repair yourself in an afternoon.

1. Lever out the first block in the sunken area with two screwdrivers or bent pliers; the rest will then come out easily.
2. Set the blocks aside in the order they came out, so each one goes back to the same place in the pattern.
3. Remove the laying course and check the sub-base. If it is soft or waterlogged, dig it out down to firm ground.
4. Top up with crushed aggregate in thin layers and compact each layer thoroughly with a hand tamper.
5. Spread a new laying course of fine grit and level it slightly above the surrounding surface.
6. Put the blocks back in their original places, tap them down with a rubber mallet and check the level with a straightedge laid across the repair.
7. Fill the joints with dry sand, brush it in and repeat the filling a few days later.
8. If the same spot sinks again, look for the cause in the ground below, such as a leaking drain or poor drainage.

Block paving needs very little care. Top up the joints with sand when they need it and pull or scrape out weeds by hand. A pressure washer blasts sand out of the joints, so refill them after every wash. Deal with oil stains as soon as you can, before they soak into the concrete.

When you take over the finished area, it is worth checking that:

• Water runs off after rain or after you tip out a bucket, and does not stand anywhere
• The surface is flat without dips, checked with a long straightedge in several directions
• The rows of blocks are straight and the joints even and full of sand
• The kerbs run in a straight line, sit firmly and are backed with a concrete haunch
• There are no thin cut pieces at the edges that could break out
• The block surface is not scratched or chipped from compaction
• The surroundings are cleared of leftover concrete and aggregate