Is $15 a square foot fair for a plain concrete patio in Orleans?

$15 per square foot sits at the top of the published range for plain broom-finish concrete, which runs about $9 to $15 per square foot. It is not out of the question, but it is worth understanding what should be included at that price before you sign.

What the number depends on is the size of the job, the depth of excavation and base preparation, whether old concrete needs to come out, how easy it is to get equipment into the yard, and the time of year. Ottawa price pages note that small jobs often hit a minimum charge of about $5,500, so a smaller patio can push the per-square-foot figure toward or past the top of the range even with a straightforward finish.

A few City of Ottawa rules apply to this job. The contractor must hold a City of Ottawa Hardscaping Contractor Licence, which has been required since March 1, 2026 for businesses installing concrete patios, walkways, steps and similar hard landscaping on private property. The licence requires the contractor to carry commercial general liability insurance of not less than $2,000,000 per occurrence and automobile liability insurance of not less than $2,000,000, and to provide you with a written contract and a copy of the City's Landscaping Education Guide. Ask to see the licence and check the contractor's name against the City's published list of licensed hardscaping contractors yourself. The City's patio page says a patio is exempt from a building permit if it is supported directly on the ground and meets the other conditions listed there, but the exemption page also says exempt work must still comply with the Ontario Building Code and any applicable law, including the Zoning By-law. If the work involves digging, whoever digs is the excavator under the Ontario Underground Infrastructure Notification System Act, 2012, and a locate request must be submitted through Ontario Dig Authority at least five business days before any digging starts.

On the technical side, the 2024 Ontario Building Code sets 32 MPa as the compressive strength standard for exterior flatwork and a maximum water-to-cementing-materials ratio of 0.45 for the same. We found no Code thickness, base depth, reinforcement or vapour barrier requirement for an exterior patio, so those details come from the contractor's written specification. Ask for the base depth and material, the concrete strength, and the air entrainment plan in writing. The National Research Council's Canadian Building Digest 116 notes that air entrainment has a "remarkable effect" in improving frost resistance, and that surface scaling is most severe on horizontal surfaces exposed to freeze-thaw cycling and de-icing salts.

Ask the contractor to itemize removal and disposal of any existing concrete separately: clean concrete without rebar is accepted at the City's Trail Waste Facility at $144 per tonne above 250 kg. Also confirm whether cold-weather protection is included if the pour happens when the air temperature is below 5 °C.

The single most useful question before you sign: what exactly is included in the base preparation, and what is the cost if the excavation or soil conditions require more work than expected?