Guides
Is It Cheaper to Build a Patio or Buy a Kit?
Once you count the plans, the offcuts and the weekends, the answer is less obvious than it looks.
The short answer
Buying raw materials usually looks cheaper and often is not, once you add engineering drawings, offcuts, the fixings you did not know you needed and the extra weekends. A kit is priced as one thing, cut to your span, with the plans included. From scratch makes sense when the design is genuinely unusual.
- Usually cheaper
- A kit, once waste is counted
- Hidden cost
- Offcuts and fixings
- Kit includes
- Engineer-rated drawings
- Scratch wins
- Unusual shapes
01
What building from scratch really includes
The material bill is the visible part. These are the lines that turn up afterwards.
- Engineering drawings, if you want it approved
- Offcuts — standard lengths rarely match your span, and the waste is money
- Brackets, bolts and fixings, which add up faster than people expect
- Cutting and drilling, and the tools or hire to do it
- The extra weekends that setting out from nothing takes
02
What a kit is actually buying you
Steel cut to your measurement with the holes already in it, plans that match what is in the box, and one price instead of a running tab.
The saving is not really material cost. It is the design work, the waste and the trips to the hardware store.
01
It arrives flat-packed
02
Footings and posts
03
The frame goes up
04
Then the roof sheets
05
Flashing, gutter and downpipe
| From scratch | Cut-to-measure kit | |
|---|---|---|
| Design | Yours to work out | Done, and engineer-rated |
| Cutting and drilling | You do it | Done before it arrives |
| Offcuts | Yours to pay for | None — it is cut to size |
| Fixings | Bought as you discover them | In the pack |
| Council drawings | Drawn or paid for | Included |
| Price certainty | A running total | Fixed on the kit |
From scratch wins when the shape is genuinely unusual. For a rectangle over a paved area, a kit is hard to beat.
03
When building from scratch is the right call
There are real cases for it, and we would rather say so than pretend otherwise.
- A shape or a site that no standard structure suits
- You already have most of the material and the tools
- You want timber, which is not something we supply
- The build itself is the point, and the weekends are not a cost to you
Build or buy questions
Is timber cheaper than steel?
Sometimes on the material bill, though it needs more maintenance and behaves differently over a long span. We only supply steel, so treat that as our bias declared rather than a neutral verdict.
Can I use a kit as a starting point and modify it?
Changing spans or post positions changes what the engineering covers, so it is not a small decision. Tell us what you want different before you order and we will say whether the kit can be cut that way.
How much time does a kit actually save?
Most of the design and setting-out time, plus the trips for fixings you did not know you needed. The digging, bolting and lifting are the same either way.
More kit guides
Next step
Get a patio kit price first
Send your span and we come back with a fixed number for the kit. Then compare it against your material list with the drawings and the offcuts counted in.