How much is a concrete patio?

There's no flat per-foot number that means anything, because two patios the same size can be very different jobs. The finish, the access for the truck, and the grading and drainage under the slab decide the real cost. A broom-finished patio the truck can reach is the affordable end. A stamped pool deck in a fenced backyard the mixer can't get to is the other end. A free site visit and a written quote is the honest way to get a number for your patio.

Is a concrete patio cheaper than interlock?

Usually, yes, especially over a larger area, because a poured slab is one continuous pour rather than hundreds of individually set pavers. Interlock costs more in labour and can shift or weed at the joints over time, though a single paver can be lifted and reset. Concrete is one solid surface with less to go wrong, and a broom finish is the most affordable patio you can build. If you want the look of stone, stamped concrete gets you most of the way for less than the same area in pavers.

Do I need a permit for a concrete patio in Ontario?

A ground-level patio slab usually doesn't need a building permit, but it depends on your municipality and on what you're building. The moment a deck, a roof, a structure, or anything that affects grading and drainage to a neighbour comes into it, you can need a permit or have to respect setbacks. We check the local rules before we pour, and your municipal building department is the place to confirm. Never assume the rule from one town carries to the next.

Will a concrete patio crack?

Every concrete slab moves, so the question is whether it cracks in a controlled way or a random one. Control joints are cut in to tell the slab where to crack so the lines stay straight and hidden. Properly graded base, the right mix, and joints in the right places keep cracking to clean tooled lines instead of a spider web across your patio. A slab rushed onto poorly compacted ground is the one that cracks badly.

Concrete Patio Cost in Ontario: What Drives It

Q: Why does the backyard cost more than the front?

Because the concrete truck usually can't reach it. If the mixer can back up to the forms, the pour is straightforward. A fenced or narrow-side-yard backyard means the crew moves the concrete by pump or by wheelbarrow, and that labour is real money on top of the pour. A backyard patio behind a gate is a different job from a front slab open to the driveway, even at the same square footage.

Most people pricing a patio are thinking about the surface: broom, exposed aggregate, or stamped to look like flagstone. That’s the part you see, so it’s the part you shop. But a patio is really a drainage job with a finished surface poured on top, and the work you don’t see is usually where the money goes and where a cheap patio fails. Here’s what actually moves the price.

A patio is a drainage job first

Before any concrete gets ordered, the real question is where the water goes. A patio sits right against the house in most yards, so it has to shed water away from the foundation, not toward it. That means the base has to be graded with a slight slope, the ground under it has to be excavated and compacted so the slab doesn’t settle, and in some yards it means tying into a drain or rerouting a downspout so you’re not pooling water at the back wall.

Skip that and you get the patio that holds puddles after every rain, pushes water toward the basement, and heaves in the first hard freeze because water sat under it. None of that grading and drainage work shows up in a flat per-foot rate, which is exactly why a flat rate is a poor way to compare patio quotes. The patio that’s a little more because the base and the slope were done right is the cheaper patio by year three.

The finish you choose

This is the biggest lever you actually control, and the easiest one to picture:

Broom finish is the standard and the most affordable. The surface is dragged with a stiff broom for grip so it’s not slick when wet, and small repairs blend in. Plenty of Southern Ontario patios are broom-finished and look clean for decades.
Exposed aggregate is the step up. The top layer of cement paste is washed off to reveal the stone in the mix, which adds texture, hides marks, and grips underfoot. It costs more than broom and less than stamped, and it wears well around a patio.
Stamped concrete is the premium. Pattern and colour pressed into the slab to read as slate, flagstone, or cobble, so you get the look of a stone patio in one continuous pour. It’s the most expensive finish and it carries a resealing schedule to keep the colour, which is worth knowing before you choose it.

Access for the truck

If the concrete truck can back up to the forms, the pour is straightforward. Backyard patios are where this gets expensive, because the mixer usually can’t reach them. A fenced yard, a narrow side passage, or a slab tucked behind the house means the crew moves the concrete by pump or by wheelbarrow, load after load, and that labour is real money on top of the pour itself.

This is the single biggest reason a backyard patio costs more than a front slab the same size. When you compare quotes, the access plan matters: a quote that accounts for pumping a hard-to-reach yard is being honest about the job, and one that doesn’t has either seen something you haven’t or is going to find the rest later.

Size, and why it’s the least interesting factor

Yes, a bigger patio costs more. But square footage is the part of a quote you can already estimate yourself, and it’s rarely where two quotes diverge. The interesting money is in the finish, the access, and the drainage. A small patio in a tight backyard with grading work can cost more than a large one the truck can reach on flat, well-drained ground. Don’t let a per-foot rate convince you that size is the whole story.

Pool decks are a patio with stricter rules

A pool deck is a patio variant worth calling out, because it’s a flatwork job with extra demands. The surface has to grip when it’s wet and bare feet are on it, so a smooth trowel finish is the wrong call. The grading is fussier, because water has to run away from the pool and the house both, and there are often fencing and setback rules tied to the pool itself. Exposed aggregate and certain stamped textures earn their keep here for grip. It’s still concrete flatwork, but the drainage and the safety details make it its own conversation, not just a bigger patio.

How to read a patio quote so the cheap one doesn’t cost you more

A fair quote is itemized. It names the base depth and compaction, the grading and how water is being moved away from the house, the mix (look for 32 MPa air-entrained concrete, the standard for Ontario’s freeze-thaw and road salt), the control joints, the finish, and the access plan if the truck can’t reach the spot. A quote that’s just one number, or that comes in well under the others without explaining why, is usually cheaper because the drainage work or the base got thinned out. You pay that difference back in puddles, settling, and cracks.

The honest way to get a real number for your patio is a free site visit and a written quote that holds. That’s how we do it, and it means you’re comparing real jobs, drainage and all, instead of guessing against a rate that was never about your yard in the first place.