Paver patio cost in Albuquerque, NM

Albuquerque: what basic, standard and premium work costs

The cited range is split into basic, standard and premium bands, then scaled to Albuquerque. Bands overlap, because plenty of standard jobs cost as much as a light premium one. Sizes run from 12x12 (144 sq ft) to pool deck (800 sq ft).

Specs and site conditions that change a Albuquerque bid

• Excavation and grading

  Digging out is $1-$5 per sq ft; regrading a sloped yard is $0.40-$2.00 per sq ft.

• Pattern

  Herringbone and curves take longer to lay and waste more stone than a running bond.

• Permit

  At-grade patios often need no permit; add a retaining wall, a cover, or a connection to the house and that changes.

What nearby projects cost in Albuquerque

Jobs that often go together with paver patio are priced below at their usual sizes, using the same Albuquerque wage and price inputs. Compared with national midpoints, wood deck comes out highest (−4%) and retaining wall lowest (−12%); the gap comes from the trades each job uses.

Extras that change the Albuquerque total

Add-ons start from national price ranges and are scaled by 0.90 for Albuquerque, which is the average of the area's wage index (0.83) and goods price index (0.96). The estimator above can add them to your total.

How Albuquerque compares

Of the five closest metros, 2 are cheaper than Albuquerque. El Paso is the lowest at about $3,550 (midpoint, 300 sq ft), 255 miles away.

Out of the 300 metros we cover, Albuquerque ranks #267 for the cost of this job (#1 is the most expensive). Statewide, Albuquerque is 1% above the New Mexico figure.

Elsewhere in New Mexico

Metros of a similar size

Big cities and small ones price differently, so here is Albuquerque against the 4 metros with the closest total employment.

Albuquerque weather and the paver patio calendar

Climate numbers on this page come from NOAA's 1991-2020 U.S. Climate Normals at the nearest suitable station, Albuquerque Intl Ap (5 miles from the city center). They are 30-year averages, so any one year can run hotter, colder or wetter.

For digging, grading and setting material in the ground, the comfortable months in Albuquerque are March through May and August through November: 7 of 12. Outside them, January, February and December have an average overnight low at or below freezing (32°F), and June and July have an average daytime high of 90°F or more.

In January, February and December the average low is at or below freezing, which means frozen ground and slower digging, compaction and sod or stone placement. NOAA counts about 93 days a year with a low at or below 32°F at this station.

Albuquerque gets about 9 inches of precipitation in a normal year, including roughly 8 inches of snow. The wettest months are July, August and September (1.6 inches in July). Inside the workable window, March and May are the driest, at 0.5 and 0.4 inches. The station averages about 64 days a year at 90°F or above.

We do not adjust the estimate by month, because we have no reliable published data on seasonal pricing. It is still worth asking contractors whether an off-peak start date changes their bid.

What local crews earn in Albuquerque

The labor line is built from BLS wage data, one trade at a time. This job draws on 3 trades. We compare each trade's local median with the US median, weight the ratios by how much of the job each trade does, and apply the blend to the national labor cost. For Albuquerque the blend is 0.83.

For construction laborers (47-2061, weighted 50%) the local median is $19.44 an hour, which is 14% below the national $22.66. The middle half of them earn between $17.40 and $23.09 an hour. BLS counts 4,140 of them working in the area, 102.3 for every 10,000 jobs (US: 70.5), so the local bench is deeper than average.

For brickmasons and blockmasons (47-2021, weighted 30%) the local median is $21.11 an hour, which is 29% below the national $29.87. The middle half of them earn between $17.39 and $23.26 an hour. BLS counts 180 of them working in the area, 4.4 for every 10,000 jobs (US: 3.4), so the local bench is deeper than average.

Landscaping and groundskeeping workers (37-3011), 20% of the weighting: a median of $18.15 an hour, 4% below the US median of $18.82. The middle half of them earn between $17.37 and $21.65 an hour. About 2,270 work in the metro. That is 56.1 per 10,000 jobs, compared with 61.3 nationally, so the supply of crews looks typical.

A quick sensitivity check: moving the lead trade (construction laborers) from the median to the 75th percentile wage adds about $210 to the midpoint estimate; the 25th percentile takes off about $110. That is a swing of roughly 3.1% to 5.5% of the total, which is useful for judging whether a bid reflects wages or something else, such as scope or margin.

Albuquerque has 404,700 jobs in total (BLS, May 2025), ranking 62nd by size among the 300 metros on this site.