Choosing great paving contractors can be complex, as you need to ensure you work with a professional, reliable, and suitably skilled team. Whether you’re looking to construct a new pathway, driveway, block-paved area, patio, or frontage or completely transform your garden, your paving needs to be equally long-lasting, beautiful, and functional.

The expertise and advice an accomplished team of landscape gardeners and paving specialists offer is invaluable, recommending locally sourced materials, flagstones and paving solutions within your budget and suggesting the right approach to groundworks, drainage and membranes to keep your paving looking pristine.

Our expert paving team has compiled a concise list of parameters to look for and factors to consider, ensuring you go with a talented paving provider that offers fantastic value for money and exceeds your expectations.

Local Landscapers and Paving Contractors: What Is the Difference?

If you’re new to landscaping or paving, the first question might be about the type of business, paving company or landscaping provider you hire – and the great news is that a firm offering comprehensive landscaping services can cater to all your requirements.

As a quick overview:

  • Paving services are part of hard landscaping, where a paver might work on retaining walls, laying flagstones for paths and patios, or undertake more extensive constructions such as sunken seating areas or outdoor BBQ kitchens.
  • Landscape gardeners cover these bases but also provide additional support with natural planting or soft landscaping, garden design and thoughtful garden planning to ensure you make the best use of the space available.

We suggest consulting a local landscaper if you have any questions since we can assist and offer recommendations, even if the scope of the job is purely focused on a paving project. For example, if you wish to construct a patio, the preparatory work and type of drainage you need may differ depending on whether the patio will be next to a lawn or artificial grass.

What Services Can a Paving Contractor Provide?

Cotswold Paving & Landscaping is a family-owned full-service company. We pride ourselves on managing both larger landscaping projects and smaller bespoke jobs, such as paving a front garden or turning an off-road parking space into an elegant block-paved driveway.

However, we also consult homeowners, property investors, and businesses about other elements of their outdoor space, ensuring they make informed decisions about the right paving materials, layouts, and usage of the area to achieve the aesthetic and curb appeal they are after.

Services specific to paving are just as wide-ranging and cover all jobs with a paving element. We use high-quality sustainable slabs, stones, brickwork, and slate to create durable, hard-wearing, and visually appealing paving around any aspect of your property, including weatherproof pool surround paving and paving around water features.

What Should I Look for in a Local Landscaper or Paving Contractor?

We appreciate that selecting a contractor to take on your paving or landscaping project can be tricky. We often speak with clients concerned about paying more than they should or ending up with paving that starts to degrade or crack over a short period of time.

By following the advice below, you can review the professional standing and reputation of any contractor you work with and have confidence that your estimate or quote represents a fair price.

1. Verifying That a Paving Contractor is Insured and Registered

Step one is to spend a little time confirming that a contractor is legitimate. We’d suggest you check that your provider:

  • Is fully insured to carry out all the work included in the job.
  • Has appropriate certifications or qualifications.
  • Is a registered, recognised business.
  • Provides a guarantee or warranty against their work.

You can check for company registration details, request insurance coverage information, look at endorsements and approvals from well-known paving material suppliers, and look for accolades and awards.

We are proud to have over 28 years of experience and to have been recognised in multiple national award categories. You’ll find full details on our website and are welcome to get in touch if you’d like any further information about our status, accreditations and registrations.

2. Checking Your Local Landscaper Has Ample Paving Experience

Paving is a fairly technical part of a landscaping project because even though hard landscaping is predominantly practical, it must withstand the elements, remain functional during inclement weather, and work well with the other features within your garden.

Experienced paving professionals will also proactively offer input and advice regarding material selections. Rather than selecting a type of stone or flagstone based solely on preference, it is important you know how the design will look once finished and any particular options that are best suited to your family, property and required style.

References and testimonials from previous clients can provide great insights, and you can look at past work galleries to see the outcomes and experiences of other customers in the local area.

Our project case studies are a great resource and showcase how a garden looks from day one, detailing the design phase, and the progress made through to completion of a paving project.

3. Discussing Timeframes and Budgets With Your Paving Contractor

Most clients have two priorities: they want their paving completed on time and on budget. Availability is always worth discussing upfront because if it is likely to take some time to source specific materials, or your contractor will need to complete initial groundworks, you need to be aware of this from the outset.

Budgets are just as important, where the best landscapers will offer transparency and guidance, often providing input around:

  • Varied materials or paving options, each of which may have a different budget or variable cost elements.
  • The necessity of a landscape architect or suggestions about which paving materials will be lower-cost in the long term due to lower maintenance requirements.
  • Paving designs that could improve the value of your property or that fall within permitted development rights for local commercial or residential clients.

We offer all customers free quotes with no obligation and strongly suggest you refrain from working with any contractor who pressures you to proceed, is unwilling to offer comparable pricing, or quotes significantly more or less than another hard landscaping provider.

Paving should be completed to the highest standards, and compromising quality for cost is often a big mistake. Most paving projects with poor underlying construction will inevitably need to be repaired or replaced in the near future.

If you’d like any further advice about selecting a great landscape gardener, obtaining a quote for your paving project, or discussing the best way to create a beautiful, paved area around your home, please get in touch with Cotswold Paving & Landscaping at your convenience.