u/bigbebby

I’m getting a small back garden job priced and just wondering if this sounds fair.

The quote is €3,500 for preparing the site, digging out, whacking/compacting, laying 18m² of porcelain paving, and adding granite kerbing. The builder/paver has estimated it as about 4 days labour.

The access is awkward enough. We are in a mid-terrace house with no rear entrance, so everything has to come through the house. It’s for a back garden pergola/seating area, so it needs to be level and finished properly.

I know porcelain takes more work than standard slabs, especially with proper prep, cutting, jointing and getting levels right, and the granite kerbing obviously adds cost. The awkward access probably adds a fair bit too.

Just trying to get a sense of whether €3,500 is about right, on the high side, or too much.

Has anyone had similar work done recently?

Has anyone in Ireland added a plug-in battery system like an EcoFlow Stream Ultra/X alongside an existing solar and battery setup?

I already have a registered solar system with battery storage, but in winter the battery regularly runs out and I end up importing a lot of expensive day-rate electricity. I’m considering adding an EcoFlow system to allow charging it on the cheap night rate (2–4am at 9c) and programming it to discharge during peak/day-rate hours.

My understanding is the EcoFlow can be scheduled to charge/discharge at certain times, but I’m curious about real-world experience. Does it work smoothly alongside an existing hybrid inverter/battery?

Would love to hear from anyone actually running this type of setup.