Driveways and patios in Corfe Castle

Parking where there is barely room for it. Off-street space is scarce here and most of what exists was never built, it just happened. A proper job means digging to formation at the depth the ground actually needs, a geotextile membrane, a compacted sub-base and edge restraint, then a surface chosen for the gradient. On anything sloping we would rather lay bound gravel, resin bound stone, a stabilising grid or block paving than loose shingle, because loose stone on a slope ends up in the road by February.

Steps, levels and retaining. Gardens that fall away want breaking into usable terraces rather than one long ramp. That is a retaining course, a set of steps with an even rise and a landing where the run is long, and a patio at each level that is genuinely flat. It is more groundwork than paving, and it is where an honest quote and a cheap one separate.

Plenty of the paths and terraces here are natural stone laid straight onto sand, and after enough winters they sit unevenly and hold water. The stone itself is usually still good. We lift it, keep it, put a proper base under it and re-bed it on a full mortar bed with the falls corrected, then point the joints. Broken pieces get cut and worked back in, and new stone is matched to what is already down rather than ordered by the pallet.

Many of the cottages here sit straight onto the ground with no modern damp proof course, so the finished level of a patio matters more than it would on a newer house. We keep the paving low, run the fall away from the wall, and where the ground insists on being high we put a drainage channel along the elevation rather than letting a threshold sit in a puddle. Drainage on this ground is impeded, so a soakaway is sized off a percolation test and sometimes has to become a positive outfall instead. Long shared accesses pothole and rut where the cross-fall has gone, and regrading, a fresh sub-base and a gully at the low point normally costs less than people expect. Where a lorry cannot reach, spoil and broken concrete come out by barrow and machine to one loading point, and the disposal is written into the quote rather than turning up later.

There is no rate per square metre worth quoting, because what is under the surface decides more of the price than the surface. A cottage on the street with no frontage, a house set above the lane with steps up to it, and a farm property at the end of a long track are three very different prices for the same area of paving. On a slope the retaining and the levels cost more than the paving does. Ask what depth is being dug, what sub base is specified, and who removes the spoil.

We work across Corfe Castle, Kingston, Church Knowle and the villages of Purbeck through BH20, out from a Bournemouth base, and we come to you to price the job. 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.