Driveways and patios in Furzehill

Concrete drives from the sixties and seventies. Getting on for half the housing around Furzehill went up between 1945 and 1982, with the peak in the late sixties and early seventies, and plenty of those houses still have the original in situ concrete drive with the garage down the side. Concrete of that age cracks along its joints, tips at the edges where roots have got under it, and holds water in the low corner. Breaking it out is a day with a machine and a grab lorry. Where the slab is still flat and sound we will say so and leave it, because laying block paving over sound concrete puts the finished level two courses closer to the damp proof course than you want it.

Bungalow thresholds. Bungalows are about a quarter of the housing around Furzehill and nearly all of them have a shallow step at the door. Every surface laid over the last one takes the level up again. We take the finished level down instead, keep a clear gap below the damp proof course, and run a channel drain or a gravel border across the threshold where the ground will not allow the drop. That single detail is what stops a new patio making the inside wall damp.

The ground here is slow to drain, so infiltration is not the default answer. A soakaway wants a percolation test rather than an assumption and may need a positive outfall instead, and that is settled before a surface is chosen. The concrete flag and crazy paving terraces out the back are usually sitting on five blobs of mortar with nothing under the middle. They rock, they pond, and they turn slippery through a wet autumn. Relaying on a full mortar bed over a compacted sub-base ends it.

Sunken bays, rutting in the wheel tracks and weed growth up the joints are nearly always the same two faults: the edge restraint stopped at the gate, and the jointing sand washed out years ago. Blocks hold each other up by pushing sideways, so once the perimeter goes the middle follows. Lifting and relaying the affected area, running a haunched kerb round the outside and doing a full re-sand with kiln dried sand costs a fraction of a new drive, and we will always price that option first where it is genuinely available. On anything built new, the depth of the sub-base is set by what the hole tells us rather than by a standard detail.

No rate per square metre. What is under it decides more of the cost than what goes on top. A bungalow with a wide frontage on a seventies estate road, a detached house with the garage down the side, and a flat with a share of a communal parking area are three different jobs. The ground here is slow to drain, so where the water ends up is a design decision with a cost. Ask any quote how deep the dig is, what sub base goes in, where the water goes, and who takes the spoil.

We cover Furzehill and the rest of BH21, out through Colehill and Wimborne Minster to Holt, West Moors and Three Legged Cross. 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.