Ask three companies to quote the same back garden and you can get three numbers spread across a couple of thousand pounds. It looks like someone is trying it on. Usually nobody is – the gap almost always comes down to what each installer plans to do with the surface that’s already there. On patio work around Bournemouth, the state of the existing base has more influence on the final bill than the size of the patio itself.
This is a plain guide to what resin patios cost across the area in 2026, and how to tell which of your quotes is actually the good one.
The Price Brackets
Small courtyard and side-return patios, around 15-25m², generally come in at £1,800 to £3,000. Small jobs carry the highest rate per square metre, because getting a crew and kit to site costs much the same whether they’re laying 18 square metres or 40. If your existing concrete is solid enough to lay straight over, expect to land near the bottom of that range.
The most common job size – a 25-40m² rear garden patio behind a two- or three-bed home in places like Winton, Moordown or Southbourne – runs £2,800 to £4,800. Nearly all of the variation inside that bracket is groundwork.
Above 40m² you’re starting around £4,500, and complexity takes over from there. A large patio with steps, curved edges and a completely new base at one of the bigger properties in Talbot Woods or Canford Cliffs can run £7,000-£9,000.
Those figures cover materials, labour, edging and waste clearance, and assume you can get a wheelbarrow down the side of the house. If the only route to the back garden is through the kitchen, the labour goes up.
Why The Existing Surface Decides Everything
Resin laid over sound, level concrete costs roughly £90-£110 per square metre. Lift a failed patio, dig out, cart it away and build a fresh compacted stone base, and the same square metre costs £150-£220. On a 30m² patio, that single difference is worth £1,800 or more – which is exactly the gap you see between quotes that otherwise look identical.
So the first question that matters isn’t “how much per metre” – it’s whether your current patio can stay down. An overlay works when the concrete or slabs underneath are structurally sound, roughly level, and not holding water. If slabs are rocking or the base under them has failed, resin laid on top will show that movement within a year or two. It can’t do anything else. The resin is only ever as good as what it sits on.
A lot of Bournemouth patios sit somewhere in the middle. Pressed concrete slabs on a sand bed – standard from the 1970s through the 90s – often have a few loose units over a base that’s basically fine. In that case the slabs come up, the base gets topped and re-compacted, and the price falls between a straight overlay and a full dig-out.
Be wary of anyone who quotes for an overlay without physically standing on your patio. They’re guessing, and the guess gets corrected on installation day at your expense.
What Else Moves The Number
Access is a bigger deal for patios than for driveways. A driveway sits at the front, next to where the mixer parks. A rear patio behind an older terrace in Boscombe or Springbourne might mean carrying every load of stone through a narrow gate or through the house itself, and tight access can add 20-30% to the labour.
Edges and levels are the other quiet cost. A simple rectangle bounded by existing walls is cheap to finish. Curves, steps down to a lawn, or a surface that has to be built up to meet the door threshold all take extra material and time, and none of it shows in a per-metre rate.
The stone blend you pick moves the price a little – premium aggregates cost more than a standard buff or grey – but it’s a minor line next to the groundwork. If one quote is £1,500 above the others, the stone colour is not the reason.
Local Ground, Local Prices
Bournemouth’s sandy soil is a genuine advantage here. Sand drains freely and compacts predictably, so base preparation on most sites across Winton, Charminster, Ensbury Park and much of Poole holds no surprises. The exceptions are the clay pockets around Wimborne, Ferndown and the river valleys, where waterlogged winter ground needs a deeper, better-drained base to stop it heaving. If your lawn squelches in January, budget toward the top of the bracket.
Sloped gardens – common in Boscombe and parts of Poole – usually need the patio cut into the bank or built up with a retaining edge on one side. That’s landscaping cost on top of surfacing cost, and it’s worth pricing as a single job rather than adding resin onto someone else’s groundwork afterwards.
One thing you don’t need to budget for is planning permission. The rules on impermeable surfacing, set out in the government’s guidance on paving over gardens, apply to front gardens only – and resin bound surfacing is permeable in any case. Rear patios are unaffected unless the property is listed.
Resin Against Slabs And Porcelain
Concrete slabs are the cheapest way to surface a patio at £50-£90/m² installed, and the most demanding to keep: jointing sand washes out, weeds take the gaps, individual slabs crack and settle. Most slab patios want re-pointing or partial relaying inside ten years.
Porcelain looks sharp at £80-£150/m² installed, but the laying is slow and unforgiving, a dropped pan can chip a tile that then has to be cut out, and the joints still need attention.
Resin spans both of those ranges at £90-£220/m² depending on the base. For similar money you get a surface with no joints for weeds or moss to root in, no individual units to fail, and a 20-25 year lifespan on a couple of sweeps a year. Firms like quote patio work off a free site survey, which is the only reliable way to know which side of the overlay line your garden falls on.
What The Better Surface Actually Buys You
The honest argument for spending above slab money is how the space gets used afterwards. A patio with no joints and no puddles dries quickly after rain – and in a Bournemouth summer, where showers and sea mist blow through fast, that’s the difference between sitting out the same evening and waiting until the following lunchtime. Furniture sits flat. Bare feet are comfortable. On a north-facing garden, where slab joints turn green within a couple of seasons, there’s simply nothing for the moss to get hold of.
It shows up at sale time too. A recently surfaced patio reads as a finished garden rather than a pending project, and outdoor space photographs well in listings – something agents serving the family market in Southbourne and Christchurch lean on heavily.
Comparing Quotes Properly
A patio quote is only worth the paper it’s on after someone has inspected the existing surface, watched how it drains, and walked the access route. Anything quoted before that is an estimate with a contingency hidden in it.
When the quotes come in, check each one states three things: whether the existing base is being kept or replaced (and why), what edging is included, and how the finished level will meet your door thresholds and lawn. The cheap quote that leaves those blank is usually the expensive one by