The stone is one line among several
Ask three suppliers for a price and you will get three numbers that are not describing the same thing. One is quoting stone at the yard, one is quoting it into a container, and one is quoting it to the pier. None of those is the figure that matters, which is what the paving costs standing on your site, ready to lay. Getting all three onto the same basis takes an hour and saves a renegotiation. Write the delivery point at the top of every sheet, because that single line decides what the rest of the numbers mean. Installation is a separate conversation with a local contractor, and it belongs on the sheet as its own line rather than folded into a stone price.
What a delivered number should contain
Write the build-up out in full and keep the same order on every quote you compare. The list below is deliberately dull, and that is the point, because a dull list is a checkable one.
- Stone by format and area, priced per square meter or per unit and stated clearly which.
- Crating, banding and edge protection, with crate counts and weights.
- Inland transport to the load port and any handling at that end.
- Ocean freight for the Bonaire leg, plus insurance shown separately.
- The levy at import, port charges, any storage, and the road leg to the property.
The levy sits on freight as well
Bonaire charges no import duty on goods, and ABB applies instead at 8% on goods and imports. The detail that changes a budget is the base: ABB at import is charged on the customs value, which is the value of the goods plus insurance plus transport. Freight and insurance are inside the base, so an efficient crate plan reduces the shipping bill and then reduces the tax calculated from it. With no duty percentage to model, the whole tax question narrows to one rate and one base, which is a rare simplification and worth using properly. It also means a credible estimate can be built long before the drawings are finished, since only two inputs move it.
Waste, cuts and the pattern you chose
Nobody lays exactly the area they measured. Cuts at edges, curves and level changes consume material, and a diagonal or radial layout consumes more than a straight bond because more units meet the perimeter at an angle. Agree an allowance with your installer from the actual drawing rather than from habit, and order it with the first container. Buying priced paving units for Bonaire projects in one shipment costs far less than a small top-up booking that waits for the next sailing. Order specials at the same time, since steps, thresholds and cut-to-size pieces carry their own lead time.
The layers under the stone
The wearing surface is the visible cost. The invisible ones are frequently larger, and they are where a delivered price quietly turns into an installed price. Ask your contractor which of these they are pricing and which they expect you to supply, because an unclaimed line is an unpriced line.
- Excavation, disposal and the graded, compacted base underneath.
- Bedding material, whether bonded over slab or unbound over base.
- Edge restraint, thresholds, steps and any specials cut to size.
- Jointing material and the labor to fill and finish it.
- Drainage, falls and any sediment control the site conditions require.
Container fill and phasing
Ocean freight is charged against a container rather than against your square footage, so the number that matters is how much of that container you actually use. Cost per square meter falls as it fills, which makes order strategy worth as much attention as the price list.
- Combine terrace, driveway and edge units into one booking wherever the schedule allows.
- Order the waste allowance now rather than later, since a partial replacement shipment is the expensive kind.
- Check that heavy formats are distributed so the container loads within its weight limit.
- Fix the crate list against the laying sequence so the first crates opened are the first ones needed.
Where published ranges help
Before you have drawings and quantities, a benchmark stops a budget being invented from nothing. You can check the index behind these numbers to see where material ranges sit by stone type and format, which is enough to test whether an early estimate is realistic. It is a starting point rather than a delivered figure, and the gap between the two is exactly the build-up described above. Use it to sanity-check the material line, then let quantities and finishes do the rest of the work.
Comparing two quotes fairly
Put competing quotes side by side only once each has been converted to the same basis, then query the gaps rather than assuming the cheaper document is the cheaper job.
- Confirm each price covers the same delivery point, yard against site.
- Check thickness, calibration and finish match across quotes before comparing rates.
- Look for freight and insurance shown separately, since the tax base depends on them.
- Ask what the waste allowance assumes and who carries it.
- Keep the whole comparison on one page so differences show at a glance.
Then put the same questions to each supplier in writing and keep the answers filed with the quote. The cheapest quote and the cheapest project are rarely the same document.