We are asked for "the price per metre" almost every day, and a single number is the one answer that would not help you. Two Abu Dhabi villas with identical yard areas can differ by a wide margin on the same material, because most of what you pay for a finished surface is not the block. This page sets out the six things that actually decide the figure, in the order they usually matter, so that when a quotation arrives you can see what you are being charged for - and so that when you send us your site we can price it in one pass instead of three.
1. Supply only, or supply and installation
This is the largest single split, and the one that makes most quotation comparisons meaningless. A supply-only rate covers the blocks and delivery to your site. A supply-and-install rate adds excavation or filling to level, grading and compacting the base, the sand bedding layer, laying and cutting, plate compaction and the joint sand - plus the crew and the plant to do it. If you are holding two quotations that look far apart, check this first: it is usually the explanation.
2. The design and how many colours it uses
The six designs are not priced identically, and the pattern you lay them in matters as much as the block. Plain grey in a straight running bond is the cheapest surface you can put down. A three-colour motif, a diagonal layout or a bordered pattern needs more cutting at every edge, more waste, and stock held in three colours at once - so the same nominal area consumes more material and more labour hours. A contrasting border around an otherwise plain yard is the usual compromise: it reads as a designed surface without pricing like one.
3. Thickness, which is set by the use and not by preference
A garden walkway and a vehicle entrance are not the same specification. Anything cars drive over needs a thicker block over a properly compacted base; a pedestrian area does not, and paying for a driveway specification on a garden path is money spent on nothing. We confirm the thickness against the use when we quote rather than publishing a figure here, because the right answer depends on the loads and the ground on your particular site.
4. Area - and why the rate falls as it grows
Mobilisation, delivery and setting out cost roughly the same for 80 m² as for 800 m², so they land much more heavily on a small job. This is why a rate quoted to your neighbour for a full villa yard will not apply to your entrance apron, and why it is worth asking about the whole plot at once if you intend to do the rest later anyway.
5. The condition of the ground
This is the item that most often separates an estimate from a final figure, and the one a photograph answers in seconds. Ground already level and compacted needs little more than screeding. Ground that needs excavation, spoil removal, imported fill or a build-up to reach the finished level carries real cost before a single block is laid. Falls matter too: water has to run away from the building, and getting that wrong is expensive to correct afterwards.
6. Edging, kerbstones and the awkward details
An interlock surface needs a restrained edge or the blocks migrate outwards and the joints open within a season. Kerbstones, a concrete edge beam, cutting around manholes, planters, gate tracks and drainage channels are all real line items. A quotation that omits them is not cheaper - it is incomplete.
Where your site is
Delivery inside Abu Dhabi is not the same as delivery to Al Ain or to another emirate. We show it as its own line on the quotation rather than folding it into the rate, so you can see what the location is adding and decide whether to combine deliveries.
Send these five things and you get a real figure, not a range
- The approximate area in m² - length × width is enough
- What the surface is for: walkway, courtyard, driveway, car park or sidewalk
- A photograph of the ground as it is now, which answers the excavation question faster than any description
- The design or colour you have in mind, or a reference photo of something you liked
- The city and district, and whether you want supply only or supply and installation
That is enough for us to reply with a rate for your job, the quantity to order and what the installation involves. If something on site changes the number we say so before you commit, rather than revising it afterwards.
Why there is no price list on this page
Publishing a fixed rate would mean either quoting the cheapest possible case and revising it upward once we see your site, or quoting high enough to cover every case and losing the straightforward jobs. Neither is useful to you. Concrete, fuel and labour also move, and a rate table that is six months stale is worse than no table at all. Ask when you are ready to buy and the figure you get will be the figure that applies.
Ready for a figure on your own site? Request a quotation - seven short questions - or send the details straight to us on WhatsApp. The full product page is interlock supply and installation.
Written by the Pasco Stones team in Abu Dhabi. The same guidance in Arabic: هذه الصفحة بالعربية.
