Most contractors will not put a number on a website. We are going to, because the first thing you want to know is whether this is a $4,000 job or a $40,000 job, and you should not have to sit through a sales visit to find that out.
Everything below is a range, not a quote. Two identical patios on two different lots in Wexford can price very differently, and further down we explain exactly why. When we come out, you get a written price. The visit is free.
Call (724) 605-4822.
These are the ranges we see in the Greater Pittsburgh market. Where a number is a national figure rather than a local one, we say so, because a cost guide written for Texas is not much use to you in Butler County.
| Work | Typical range | How it is measured |
|---|---|---|
| Mulching | $72 to $94 per cubic yard installed | Delivered and spread. Access matters: if we can dump close to the beds it is cheaper than wheelbarrowing it up a hill. |
| Sod installation | $1.50 to $2.00 per square foot installed | Per square foot. Tearing out the old lawn and regrading add to it. |
| Paver patio | $18 to $25 per square foot for concrete pavers $25 to $35 for premium pavers $30 to $45 for natural flagstone | Per square foot, installed. A 300 square foot paver patio lands roughly $5,400 to $7,500. The same patio in flagstone is closer to $9,000 to $13,500. |
| Retaining walls | $35 to $75 per face foot for segmental block $40 to $100+ for natural stone or engineered walls | Per face foot (the visible face of the wall). Height changes everything. Past about 3 to 4 feet a wall needs engineering, geogrid tied back into the hill, and usually a permit. Geogrid alone can add half again to the labor. |
| Driveways | Asphalt is the cheapest, concrete runs roughly 1.5x that, pavers roughly 3x | Per square foot. We are deliberately not publishing a hard per-foot number here: the only Pittsburgh-specific dataset we could find is several years old and no longer reflects what materials cost. We will price yours properly instead of guessing on a webpage. |
| Fire pit | Around $1,800 as an add-on to a patio we are already building Gas runs roughly 3 to 5 times a wood burning pit | Per project. Gas costs more because a licensed gas line has to be run. Building it with the patio is much cheaper than adding it later. |
| Decks | Pressure treated is meaningfully less than composite. Composite typically runs $30 to $60+ per square foot installed | Per square foot. Railing choice and height off the ground move this a lot. Footings here must go 36 inches down (see below). |
| Land clearing | Around $5,000 an acre for brush and small trees $10,000 to $15,000 an acre for mature trees with stumps, chipping and hauling | Per acre, though honestly per-acre pricing means very little until someone walks the site. |
| Pickleball court | $23,000 to $58,000, with the Pennsylvania average around $37,000 | Per court. See the note below, because most of that number is not the court. |
Every one of those is a range for a reason. Keep reading and we will tell you which side of the range your job is likely to land on.
The quote is not really about the patio. It is about what is under the patio and how hard it is to get a machine to it. Four things move the number more than anything else:
1. The frost line. In Allegheny County, footings have to go 36 inches below grade. That is code, not opinion. Any deck, pergola or gazebo we build has holes dug three feet down. A cost guide written for a warm state does not have that line item in it, and a cheap local bid that skips it will heave out of level within a few winters.
2. Clay soil and drainage. Our ground is heavy clay over shale. It holds water. That is why a retaining wall needs clean stone and a drain pipe behind it, and why a patio needs a deeper compacted base than it would somewhere with sandy soil. Drainage is the single most commonly cut corner on a cheap bid, and it is the single most common reason we get called to tear a wall out.
3. Slope and access. This is Pittsburgh. If a skid steer can get to the back yard, the job is cheaper. If everything has to be barrowed up a hill by hand, it is not. A sloped lot also often needs a wall to make it usable at all.
4. Height, on a wall. Under three feet is usually a straightforward garden wall. Past three or four feet you are into engineering, geogrid and permits, and the price steps up rather than climbing gently.
A backyard pickleball court in Pennsylvania averages about $37,000, and typically lands between $23,000 and $58,000. That spread looks absurd until you know what is in it.
Roughly two thirds of the cost is the foundation and the site work, not the court surface. The playing area is 20 by 44 feet, but you want about 30 by 60 feet of usable pad. On a flat lot, creating that pad is straightforward. On a Pittsburgh hillside it means excavation, fill, drainage and often a retaining wall to hold the pad up.
That is the whole answer to why one neighbor paid $25,000 and another paid $55,000 for what looks like the same court. It is also why a hardscape contractor is the right person to build one: the expensive, risky part of a pickleball court is exactly the work we already do every day.
Pennsylvania courts are normally built as an acrylic hard court over reinforced concrete rather than asphalt, specifically because of our freeze and thaw. Permits here run roughly $200 to $1,500. See our pickleball court page.
There are services we sell where we could not find a single credible Pittsburgh cost figure, only national averages. Rather than dress a national number up as a local one, here is the honest list:
Pergolas, gazebos, outdoor kitchens, artificial turf and water features. National ranges exist and they are enormous. An outdoor kitchen is quoted nationally anywhere from $6,000 to over $50,000, which is not information, it is noise.
For those, the number depends almost entirely on scope: whether gas, water and power have to be run, whether footings go to frost depth, and how big you actually go. We will price yours from the property rather than from a webpage.
We would rather tell you we do not have a defensible number than make one up. Call (724) 605-4822 and we will walk it with you.
Segmental block walls typically run $35 to $75 per face foot, and natural stone or engineered walls run $40 to $100 or more. Height is the thing that changes the math. Under three feet is usually straightforward. Past three or four feet the wall needs engineering, geogrid tied back into the hillside and generally a permit, and the price steps up. We give a written price after walking the site, and the visit is free.
In Pennsylvania, concrete pavers typically run $18 to $25 per square foot installed, premium pavers $25 to $35, and natural flagstone $30 to $45. A 300 square foot paver patio generally lands around $5,400 to $7,500. The same patio in flagstone is closer to $9,000 to $13,500.
In Pennsylvania the average is about $37,000, typically between $23,000 and $58,000. Roughly two thirds of that is the foundation and site work rather than the court surface, which is why a flat lot and a steep hillside produce very different quotes for an identical court. Permits in PA run about $200 to $1,500.
About $1.50 to $2.00 per square foot installed, so roughly $1.70 for a typical job. Tearing out an existing lawn and regrading add to that. Sod gives you a finished lawn in a day rather than waiting a season on seed.
Roughly $72 to $94 per cubic yard delivered and spread. Access is what moves it: if we can dump close to the beds it is cheaper than wheelbarrowing it up a hill, which on a lot of properties around here is the reality.
36 inches below grade in Allegheny County. That is the frost depth requirement, and it applies to decks, pergolas, gazebos and any freestanding structure. A bid that does not account for three foot footings is a bid that will heave out of level after a few winters.
It is not extra, it is the job. Our clay soil holds water, and water behind a retaining wall or under a patio is what destroys it through freeze and thaw. Clean stone and a drain pipe behind a wall is the part you cannot see once it is finished, and it is the part that decides whether it is still standing in fifteen years. It is also the first thing cut on a cheap bid.
Yes. We come out, walk the property, measure it, and give you a written price at no charge. Call (724) 605-4822.
Yes, through Dollar Bank on larger projects. Ask us when we come out.
Based at 22063 Perry Hwy, Zelienople, working across Butler, Allegheny and Beaver counties.
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Nearby but not on the list? Call (724) 605-4822 and we will tell you straight whether you are in our range.
