About Teesside Paving

Paving is the easiest trade in which to be sold something cheap. Two quotes can both say "new block drive, 40 square metres" and describe completely different jobs: one dug 250mm with a compacted sub-base, haunched edgings and a drainage answer, the other 100mm of scalpings tipped over a scraped lawn. Both look identical the week they finish. Three winters later only one still looks like a driveway. This site exists to push every quote towards the first kind, so you can compare like with like.

How it works

Tell us about the job: the area and surface you have in mind, and your postcode. The enquiry goes to one independent local paving contractor covering your area, who measures the job properly and puts a written price together. Block paving, slabs and flags, permeable builds, repairs and relaying, edging and kerbing and commercial work all follow the same standard.

The standards we hold quotes to

• The build in millimetres: excavation depth, sub-base thickness and material, and the laying course, all written down.
• Materials named: the block or slab range, thickness and colour, so the same specification can be priced twice.
• Edge restraint on every open side: haunched edgings or kerbs, because paving fails at its edges first.
• A drainage answer: falls, channel drains, soakaway or a permeable build, with the front garden rules respected.
• Spoil removal included: a 40 square metre driveway dig produces around ten tonnes of muck, and tipping it costs money that belongs in the quote.
• Insurance and a written guarantee: public liability cover you can see and a workmanship guarantee with a stated length.

Who runs it

The site is run by 360 Media Works Ltd, a Teesside company founded by Simon Hogben, from Varsity House on the Preston Farm estate in Stockton-on-Tees. The guides are written to be useful whether or not you ever request a quote here, which is why they carry the figures and the awkward questions a sales page would leave out.