Driveways and patios in Highcliffe

Communal parking areas. About a third of the homes in Highcliffe are flats, and most of those blocks have a shared parking court laid decades ago in tarmac. The faults repeat: ponding where the falls have flattened, a gully that has silted up and stopped taking water, potholes at the turning point, and edges crumbling into the planting. We can patch, plane and overlay, or dig out and rebuild, and the three are priced separately so a committee can see the choice. If the block is leasehold, work over the statutory threshold triggers consultation under section 20 of the Landlord and Tenant Act 1985, so we set the quote out in a form a managing agent can put straight into that process.

Bungalow drives and level access. Bungalows are close to three in ten homes here, and a lot of what we do on them is about getting in and out safely rather than about looks. A flush threshold instead of a step, a gentle fall away from the door, a textured surface rather than a polished one, and a handrail line kept clear. The paving has to finish clear of the damp proof course, so where the ground is tight we drop the level and run a channel drain across the door instead of building up to it.

Two thirds of the stock here went up between 1945 and 1982, peaking in the late fifties and early sixties, and those original drives were sized for a smaller car. The usual job is widening onto part of the front garden. The build up matters more than the widening: a proper excavation to formation, a geotextile membrane, a compacted sub-base at a depth set by the ground, and an edge restraint haunched in along the new border so the blocks have something to push against.

The sea is a couple of hundred metres away, anything facing it stays damp between showers, and damp paving grows algae. Smooth pressed concrete slabs are the worst of it. Textured porcelain and riven natural stone hold their grip far better, and both sit on a full mortar bed over a compacted sub-base rather than on blobs. Where a terrace has already dropped and rocks underfoot, relaying it properly costs less than people expect, because the slabs themselves usually lift clean.

On block paving, sunken bays, rutting where the car parks, weed growth and white staining across the surface are the four we see most. The first two are a base and edging problem. The last two are maintenance: a full re-sand with kiln dried sand closes the joints again, and efflorescence weathers off over a season or two rather than being scrubbed away. We will tell you which of the four you actually have before you spend anything.

No rate per square metre. What is under it decides more of the cost than what goes on top. A bungalow with a single width drive and a garage at the end, a seafront flat with a share of a communal car park, and a terraced house whose only route to the back is a shared alley. Those are three different jobs before a surface is chosen. In a shared court the gullies and the falls are usually the real work. Ask how deep the dig is, what sub base goes in, where the water goes and whether the edgings are haunched.

We cover Highcliffe and Walkford, the rest of BH23 and across to Christchurch, Mudeford and Barton on Sea. 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.