It depends on where you are located and who is doing the work. Around here the going rate for pavers is anywhere from $8-12 per SF including labor and materials.

I agree it depends where you are.

The bigger companies around me are so busy they are turning away business. One company will no longer bid jobs unless they are at least $75,000. I keep thinking the economy will slow things down eventually but we aren't there yet.

If they are licensed and insured and actually show up when they say they will, it seems a smidge high based on my knowledge - but again, I don't know where you are and location matters a lot.

Agree price is location dependent. curious about the bid range you mention - $12k difference for the same scope of work? Or, is one bid low balled & the other so high as contractor really doesn’t want job? How many bids do you have?

There is significantly more labor involved laying pavers compared to pouring concrete so that would account for the difference in pricing.

I'd also be curious as to the extent of the prep work. Just grading is not going to be sufficient for either install.

You can DIY a paver patio. It’s a lot if work, I did ours more than 20 years ago when I was a younger man. This one is approximately 750 sq ft - at the time the going install price was $10-$12 per sq ft.

Yes and no on the DIY part, of doing your own patio.

It's one of those things that looks so easy, particularly if you don't have the skills to assess what needs to happen for the outcome to look nice.

The correct base prep is key (and varies a ton based on soil conditions, whether you have to account for frost heave, etc.), a level base is key, you need a decent design eye, and heaven help you if you come with a design that needs cuts and you have no idea how to either cut a paver and/or to figure out angles so that the cuts actually look nice.

I've rarely seen a true DIY paver patio that looks professionally done. If Harry Homeowner is happy with their outcome though, who am I to judge.

Agree with @Ally De that base prep and frost condition consideration is paramount. I reside in the Upper Midwest so both were issues. Removal of sod/top soil then install compacted crushed stone in 3” lifts. Our patio required 80,000#’s of stone to create the correct grade. It’s held up well.

"ground has been fully graded by an excavation company" - that ain't helping matters if we're no longer on undisturbed soil. You can't build a patio on fill, especially a paver patio (the concrete patio will "float" by virtue of the steel reinforcing rods, right until it doesn't). So step one is removing the gravel and excavating back to undisturbed soil if using pavers. If using concrete, I would at the very least dig a few piers to undisturbed soil to support the patio.

If GN is seeing pavers for 8-12/sq ft in 2022 I will fly those installers, first class, to Virginia every week to do my paver installs. I haven't averaged under $35/sq ft in years.

And actually I would wager any paver installer is planning on removing the gravel anyhow if it's #57s (3/4" clean) stone because that's not what you use for a paver base.

@Revolutionary Gardens Pavers are a big thing around here, no permit is needed for patios, no taxes going up, etc and everyone is doing them, pretty much every landscaping company.

Back in the days everyone wanted decks, concrete patios, driveways, and walkways... nowadays pavers are everywhere. Walkway cracked... the concrete out pavers in. Need a new driveway, blacktop out pavers in.

That's so wild to me. I can tell you without looking that my materials are more than that. For us the cost delta from pavers to natural stone is small enough that the client usually goes oh, well in that case why would I want concrete pavers? Let's do stone. So I *might* do one paver job a year.

I would love to see a breakdown on the numbers for someone doing pavers out the door at that price. Broom finished concrete is $10-12/sq ft here for crying out loud, and NJ isn't exactly Iowa in terms of great cost of living.