Driveways and patios in Broadstone

Breaking out the original concrete. Two thirds of Broadstone went up between 1945 and 1982, a quarter of the whole town in the late fifties and early sixties, and the standard frontage of that period was poured concrete, often two strips with grass down the middle. Sixty years on it has cracked, tilted and lost its surface. It has to be broken out with a machine and carted away by grab lorry, so the muck away is a real line on the quote rather than an afterthought, and what we find underneath is normally thin, which is why the depth of the new dig is judged in the hole and not promised in advance. The new build goes over a geotextile membrane at formation, with the sub-base compacted in layers and the edgings haunched in concrete.

The garage run and the side access. Two houses in five here are bungalows, and nearly every one of them has a garage at the side or the end. The strip beside the house is where drives fail first, because it takes all the turning and all the barrow traffic from any other work on the property. We build that section to the same depth as the parking area rather than a thinner one, and set the levels so water leaves the strip instead of standing between the house and the boundary.

The ground here holds water and the surface water risk across the town is high, so where the rain ends up is a design decision rather than an afterthought. Permeable block paving is usually the sensible pick on these wide shallow frontages, because the water then stays on your land instead of running to the kerb. Resin bound suits somebody who wants a flat, quiet surface with no jointing to empty and nothing to re-sand, and tarmac still earns its place on a long shared drive. A soakaway gets a percolation test rather than an assumption, and on some plots the answer is a positive outfall instead.

Rear patios go on a full mortar bed with a fall away from the building, the finished level kept down off the damp proof course, or a channel drain cut along the threshold where there is no room for that. These estates were built around mature trees, and roots lift slabs and crack tarmac in a way no surface repair will settle: sometimes the fix is a flexible surface that can be relaid, sometimes a root barrier and a rebuilt base. We also do the smaller work, a sunken bay that ponds relaid, a re-sand where the joints have emptied and weed has taken hold, rutting in a wheel track dug out and rebuilt, green staining washed off a shaded path, a gully cleared, an outfall found for a downpipe currently discharging onto the drive.

No rate per square metre, because what is under it decides more of the cost than what goes on top. A bungalow with a wide open frontage, a semi where every barrow goes out through a side gate, and a house on a shared private drive are three different jobs at the same area. Depth of dig and volume of muck are the real variables, and with the surface water risk across Broadstone high, somewhere for the water to go is part of the design rather than an extra. Ask how deep, what sub base, and who takes the spoil away and pays for its disposal, all of it settled at the survey rather than at the kerb.

We cover Broadstone and BH18, out through Merley, Corfe Mullen and Canford Heath, with BCP Council for planning, building control and anything on the highway. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.