You ask three contractors to quote the same 60m² driveway. One comes back at R24,000, one at R33,000, one at R44,000. Nobody is necessarily lying. The gap is almost entirely in the parts of the job you cannot see once the bricks are down: base depth, compaction, edge restraints, bedding sand, drainage and rubble removal.
Paving is unusual that way. Ninety per cent of what determines whether a driveway lasts fifteen years or sinks in two winters gets buried on day two. This post breaks a quote down line by line so you can tell which number is cheap and which one is under-specified.
The reference points
Before comparing quotes, know the market. Across most materials in Cape Town, installed paving runs R380 – R900 per m², with driveways specifically sitting between roughly R650 and R1,600 per m² once proper base work is included. Bevel and interlock bricks are the cheapest at R380–R520 per m², clay pavers R550–R750, cobblestones R600–R850, large-format slabs R650–R900, and travertine or natural stone R900–R1,400+.
A 60m² double driveway in bevel brick typically lands between R23,000 and R31,000. The same driveway in clay pavers runs R33,000 to R45,000. So some of the spread between your three quotes may simply be that they priced different bricks — check that first, because it is the easiest explanation to confirm.
If they all quoted the same material and the numbers still differ by R20,000, the difference is underground. Here is where.
Line 1: The sub-base — the single biggest variable
The sub-base is the compacted layer of crushed stone or G5 material under the bedding sand. It is what actually carries the vehicle load. The bricks just spread it.
A cheap quote does 50–75mm of whatever came out of the excavation, roughly levelled. A proper driveway quote does 100–150mm or more of imported crushed stone, laid and compacted in layers, with the depth chosen for the soil and the load. On a soft or clay site it goes deeper.
The material and cartage alone is a serious cost. Compaction adds machine time and labour. This one line can account for R10,000 of difference on a 60m² driveway on its own — and it is invisible the moment the bedding sand goes on.
What to ask: what depth of sub-base, what material, and compacted in how many layers?
Line 2: Compaction — layers, not one thick lift
Compaction is where cheap jobs save time rather than money. A plate compactor only densifies about 100mm of material at a time. Dump 200mm of stone and run the plate over it once and the top is firm while the bottom is loose. It will feel solid on handover day and settle under traffic over the following year.
Proper practice is layers of roughly 100mm, each compacted before the next goes on. That is two or three passes instead of one, and on a driveway it is the difference between a flat surface and wheel ruts.
It is also the reason a job that takes one crew four days takes another crew seven. Labour and machine hire are real costs, and a quote that assumes four days cannot include seven days of work.
What to ask: in what thickness are the layers compacted, and with what equipment?
Line 3: Edge restraints — the cheapest thing to skip
Paving is a flexible system. It works because every brick is locked against its neighbours. Take away the edge and the whole field slowly creeps outwards, joints open, sand washes out and the pattern goes ragged.
An edge restraint is a concrete haunch, kerb or soldier course along every unsupported edge — usually R220–R380 per running metre. On a driveway with 25 metres of open edge, that is a meaningful line item, and it is the first thing that disappears from a bargain quote because homeowners do not know to look for it.
Almost every failed driveway we are called to assess has an edge that was never haunched. It is the most common single cause of paving spreading in this city.
What to ask: is a concrete haunch included on all open edges, and is it itemised in metres?
Line 4: Bedding sand — the right sand, the right depth
Bedding sand is the thin screeded layer the bricks sit on. It should be a clean, sharp, washed sand at a consistent 25–40mm, screeded and left undisturbed until the bricks go down.
Two shortcuts are common. The first is using cheap building sand with a high fines content, which holds water and turns to slurry under load. The second is using thick bedding sand to correct an uneven base — dumping 80mm of sand in the low spots instead of fixing the levels underneath. That always shows up as dips within a year or two.
What to ask: what sand, and at what screeded depth?
Line 5: Joint sand and final compaction
After laying, the bricks are compacted with a plate on a rubber mat and kiln-dried sand is swept into the joints, then compacted again and topped up. The joint sand is what transfers load between bricks. Without it, individual bricks rock and edges chip.
It is a small cost and a genuinely important step, and it is often the difference between a job that is finished and a job that is merely laid.
Line 6: Falls and drainage
Cape Town gets its rain in a concentrated cold block between roughly May and August. Water that has nowhere to go finds the weak spot in your base and stays there.
A good quote sets falls so water runs away from the house and towards something — a garden bed, a channel drain, a stormwater connection. A cheap quote lays the new surface at the same level as the old one and hopes.
Where drainage work is needed, it costs real money: a channel drain runs R1,200–R2,800 per running metre installed, so a typical single-garage channel of three to four metres is R3,600–R11,200. A soakaway is R8,000–R25,000. A full drainage redesign as part of a paving job adds R8,000–R25,000 on top of the paving. Our post on driveway drainage and Cape Town winter rain covers the options in detail.
If one quote includes drainage and another does not, they are not quoting the same job. That single line can be most of your R20,000 gap.
Line 7: Demolition and rubble removal
Lifting old paving costs R90–R180 per m². Breaking out an old concrete slab costs R180–R350 per m² depending on thickness and whether it is reinforced. Then the material has to leave the property, and a skip in Cape Town runs R1,200–R2,000.
On a 60m² driveway with an existing concrete slab, that is easily R12,000–R20,000 before a single new brick is laid. Watch for quotes that say “client to remove existing surface” in small print — that is not a cheaper quote, it is an incomplete one.
Line 8: Site conditions the quote may or may not have accounted for
- Slope. Plattekloof, Vredehoek, Hout Bay and Constantia driveways need cut-and-fill, sometimes retaining, and far more setting-out time.
- Access. If a bakkie cannot reverse to the work face, every load of stone moves by barrow. That is hours, and hours are the whole labour line.
- Soil. Durbanville and Brackenfell clay needs a deeper base than Cape Flats sand. A quote priced on a generic spec has not accounted for your ground.
- Cutting. Curves, circles, contrasting borders and herringbone patterns all generate cuts, and cuts are slow. A straight-laid stretcher bond is genuinely cheaper to install than a 45-degree herringbone with a soldier border.
- Levels against the house. Matching a garage threshold or getting under a damp-proof course adds excavation.
Line 9: The parts that are not about the paving at all
Some price difference is legitimate business difference rather than specification. A contractor who carries public liability cover, pays proper wages, works with an established supplier account and returns to fix a problem is going to cost more than a bakkie crew paid cash. Neither is inherently wrong, but you should know which you are buying.
Be equally wary in the other direction. The highest quote is not automatically the most thorough — sometimes it is just a company with higher overheads, or one that does not particularly want the job. Judge the specification, not the letterhead.
Reading three quotes side by side
| Line item | Cheap quote | Properly specified quote |
|---|---|---|
| Sub-base | Not mentioned, or “level and prepare” | Depth, material and layer count stated |
| Compaction | Not mentioned | Compacted in ~100mm layers, plate or roller |
| Edge restraint | Absent | Concrete haunch itemised in running metres |
| Bedding sand | “Sand” | Clean sharp sand, 25–40mm screeded |
| Joint sand | Absent | Kiln-dried, swept and compacted, topped up |
| Falls and drainage | Absent | Fall direction stated; drainage priced separately |
| Rubble | “Client to remove” | Demolition and skips included and counted |
| Cuts and pattern | Not distinguished | Pattern and border specified |
Print this and go through each quote with a pen. In our experience the exercise usually resolves the mystery in ten minutes: the cheap quote is missing four of the eight rows.
How to make quotes genuinely comparable
- Write one spec and send it to everyone. Area, material, pattern, border, base depth, edge restraint, drainage, rubble. Same brief, same basis.
- Insist on itemisation. A single line saying “supply and lay paving R650/m²” is a starting point, not a finished number.
- Ask them to walk the site. Anyone quoting from Google Maps has not seen your access, slope or soil.
- Ask what is excluded. Exclusions cause more disputes than inclusions.
- Ask to see finished work a few years old, not a week old. Any crew can make new paving look good on handover day.
There are legitimate ways to bring a paving budget down — simpler patterns, plainer bricks, a smaller paved area with gravel or planting elsewhere. Our guide to cheap paving in Cape Town covers which savings are safe and which ones just delay the bill. What never works is saving on the base.
If you want a quote you can actually line up against the others, our driveway paving services page explains what we include as standard, and you can send dimensions and photos through the contact page. If a competing quote is cheaper and properly specified, take it — that is what comparison is for.
Quick answers
Why are paving quotes so different for the same job?
Because the expensive parts are underground. Sub-base depth, compaction in layers, edge restraints, drainage and rubble removal can differ by tens of thousands between quotes while the visible bricks are identical. Ask every contractor to itemise those specific lines.
Is the cheapest paving quote always a bad idea?
Not always — sometimes it reflects lower overheads or a simpler pattern. It is a bad idea when it is cheaper because the base is shallower, the edges are unhaunched or the rubble is your problem. Compare specifications line by line rather than comparing totals.
What should a paving quote include?
Area in square metres, the exact material and pattern, sub-base depth and material, compaction method, edge restraints in running metres, bedding and joint sand, fall and drainage arrangements, demolition and rubble removal, and a clear list of exclusions.