How to hire
Match the firm to the job first. A groundworker owns digging, drainage, foundations, concreting and hard landscaping; a driveways specialist lives on block paving, tarmac and resin; a civil outfit suits roads, sewers and commercial plots. In this table Tradestone and Pavecraft fit domestic briefs, G N Groundworks and Butler fit commercial ones, and MSM Hire fits jobs where plant and grab hire folds into the groundworks. Describe your levels, access and soil before you ask for a price, and send photos of the site with the enquiry.
Sort permissions before you book. In Telford and Wrekin a new front driveway over five square metres of impermeable surfacing needs planning permission unless the water drains to a lawn or border, while permeable surfaces such as gravel or porous block paving need none [4]. Crossing the pavement needs its own approval: only the property owner can apply for a vehicle access, the council charges £273 for the application, and planning consent or proof of permitted development must come first [5]. Ask the council which route your street needs.
Read the ground Telford gives you before foundations are priced. Much of the borough sits over the Coalbrookdale coalfield, worked since the twelfth century, and the council warns that numerous shafts and adits go unrecorded while shallow undermining can constrain development [16]. Madeley, Dawley and the Gorge villages sit closest to that legacy. A mining search through the Mining Remediation Authority shows mine entries and hazards near a postcode, and conveyancers usually run one when buying in an affected area [17]. Eight conservation areas cover parts of Wellington, Newport, the Severn Gorge and Wrockwardine among others, where extra permissions can apply to works that would otherwise pass unnoticed [13]. Wellington's older terraces and Ironbridge's steep lanes also mean tight access, so mention parking and plant routes in the first enquiry.
Check competence on the registers, not the van. Groundworks has no single mandatory licence, so look for what is checkable: TrustMark lists firms against its standards and you can search the business name on its site [7]. For commercial sites, CHAS and Constructionline pre-qualification show a contractor has passed a safety and compliance assessment [8] [12]. Anyone shifting spoil must sit on the public waste carrier register, which you can search free [9]. Site crews should hold CSCS cards for their trade and CPCS cards for plant [10] [11]. Ask for each detail and check it yourself.
Get two or three itemised written quotes on the same scope. A quote is a promise to do the work at the agreed price, so get it in writing and compare like with like [6]. Each quote should separate labour, materials, excavation depths, sub-base specification, drainage runs, spoil removal, skip hire and VAT, with start and finish dates. Where the ground is unknown, ask how extras are priced before they arise: a cheap lump sum that skips the sub-base sinks within a few seasons. Keep every version of the quote.
Expect a typical job to run through the same stages. First contact means photos, measurements and levels sent to two or three firms, then a site visit where levels, access and soil are checked in person. Written quotes follow on the same scope, and the honest ones flag unknowns such as rock or deep clay with a day rate for extras. Permissions come next: planning or permitted-development checks, the building-control application, and the water company's agreement where foundations land near a public sewer, since that approval cannot come after the event [5] [14] [15]. Only then does the digger arrive, with inspections booked at each key stage before anything is backfilled.
Check cover and money terms before anyone digs. Ask what public liability cover is in place and get the insurer and limit in writing, since most firms in this table publish nothing on the subject. Pay deposits by card or bank transfer, keep receipts, and hold back the balance until the work is signed off: Citizens Advice says not to pay everything up front in case the trader does not turn up [6]. If a deposit is required, check whether it is protected or held in escrow [6].
Agree the paperwork you will hold at the end. For extensions, building control must inspect trenches before concrete is poured, so ask who books the inspections and what happens if the ground needs deeper digging. Photograph drainage runs and levels before backfill, and keep the itemised invoice, the waste transfer paperwork and any written guarantee with its length and exclusions. Walk the finished levels after rain before you pay the balance, and report dangerous work to the council.
Make the written quote read like a small contract: exact areas and depths, sub-base and materials, drainage runs and falls, spoil disposal, start and finish dates, staged payments, the VAT position and the guarantee length [6]. At the end, hold the full paper trail before paying the balance: the itemised invoice, the waste transfer notes, the building-control completion certificate where the full-plans route was used, and the water company's final approval letter after its closing sewer survey where one applied [9] [14] [15]. A full-plans approval notice also helps when borrowing or moving home, which is one reason that route suits extensions [14]. Guarantees mean little without length and exclusions on paper, so keep every version of the quote with the finished photographs.
Pricing
As of autumn 2026, rough Telford ranges run like this: a new driveway typically costs £60–£120 per square metre laid, with gravel at the low end of the range and resin-bound at the top [1]. A fifty square metre double drive in block paving lands around £5,500, while the groundworks element alone typically adds £20–£100 per square metre where digging and disposal run deep [1]. Treat every figure as a starting point, not a quote.
Patios span wider: manufactured slabs start near £65–£100 per square metre laid, while natural flagstone reaches £120–£475, and a typical twenty square metre patio takes three to four days with labour near £280 a day [2]. Foundations for extensions are priced by the linear metre: strip footings around £95–£115 machine-dug, trench-fill around £130–£160, with hand digging roughly doubling the rate where machines cannot reach [3].
Access and ground move the price most: narrow side entries force hand digging, clay and roots demand deeper trenches, and drainage adds hundreds where soakaways or linear channels go in [1] [3]. Dropped kerbs sit outside the driveway quote, so budget separately for the council’s approved route on top of the surfacing [5]. Ask whether each figure includes VAT or has it added, since guides and quotes mix the two [3] [6].
Drainage has its own price shape. Cost guides updated in spring 2024 put a complete soakaway at £1,000–£2,500 fitted, with labour near £240 a day, materials near £350 and waste removal near £200, while a simple channel drain along the driveway edge costs far less [18]. Access decides the rest: a tarmacked drive that must come up first, extra depth, added pipework or reinforcement all push the figure up, while an open lawn keeps it down [18]. Get the outfall route and depths agreed on paper before the digger is booked, and keep the drainage lines on the finished sketch with the invoice.
Get the scope in writing before work starts: exact areas, depths, materials, drainage falls, spoil disposal, start and finish dates, staged payments and the guarantee length [6]. Compare itemised quotes line by line rather than headline totals, and keep back a snagging sum until levels, falls and finishes are checked after rain.
Red flags
Quotes a driveway or patio without visiting, measuring, or asking for photos of levels and access.
Cannot say where spoil and old surfacing will go, or show a waste carrier registration you can check on the public register [9].
Starts digging for an extension before building control has seen the drawings and the trench.
Offers to drive over the pavement with no dropped kerb application to Telford & Wrekin Council in hand [5].
Gives one fixed price with no breakdown of labour, materials, excavation and VAT [6].
Asks for full payment in cash up front, with no written quote or terms [6].
Lays an impermeable front drive over five square metres with no drainage plan and no mention of permission [4].
Cannot name the sub-base depth or materials going under the drive, only the surface finish you will see.
Wants to start extension footings within days of quoting, with no mention of inspections, sewer checks or mining ground.