Driveways and patios in Milford on Sea

Rebuilding a drive properly. The same discipline as anywhere: excavate to formation, a geotextile membrane over soft ground, a compacted sub-base at a depth that suits what parks on it, edge restraints haunched in concrete, then the surface. What changes at less than a kilometre from the water is the detail at the perimeter, because the wind gets at edges and open joints first and works inwards from them.

A quarter of the housing here is flats, so a good share of the work is a communal court rather than one household's drive: sunken bays where the refuse lorry turns, block paving spread because the edge restraint has gone, tired tarmac and a gully that silted up years ago. Worth knowing before you ring round, the court usually belongs to the freeholder and is managed out of the service charge, so the quickest route is finding out who manages it. We will still come and look and put what it needs in writing, so you have something to send them.

Choosing a surface this close to the sea. Porcelain is dense and takes very little water, so it stays cleaner and shrugs off staining better than a softer natural stone on an exposed terrace. Resin bound over a sound concrete or tarmac base gives a smooth surface with no loose stone to blow about. Block paving still earns its place where vehicles turn. Whatever goes down, we pick something with grip in the wet rather than a polished finish that looks superb dry and is unusable in a shower.

Joints matter more here than they do inland. Kiln dried sand blows and washes out of an exposed drive far quicker, and once the joints are empty the blocks start to move, so on the seaward side we use a stabilising jointing compound, or mortar joints on a patio, and we treat a re-sand as ordinary maintenance rather than pretending it never needs doing. Gullies and channel drains fill with shingle and grit, so the falls have to be right and the gratings have to be the sort you can lift and clear by hand. We keep water off thresholds, take it to a permeable area or a soakaway inside the boundary, and clear the drainage as part of the job.

Terraces get low walls and level changes to make them usable in the wind, steps that are even underfoot, and the finished level kept clear of the damp proof course. Where an older house sits low and the ground outside has crept up over the years, we take the level back down and run a gravel margin along the wall rather than paving tight to it. Smaller work as well: lifting a sunken bay, replacing a cracked slab, repointing a patio, re-sanding a drive and clearing blocked gullies.

A shared court and a private drive are priced differently from the first visit, because one has a freeholder and a service charge behind it and the other does not. A seafront flat with a communal court, a bungalow with a narrow side entry and a detached house set back behind a wall are three different jobs before the first barrow moves. Salt and shingle add a line of their own, since gullies here silt up and the jointing has to be specified for wind. Ask about the dig depth, the sub base, where the water is taken and who removes the spoil.

We cover Milford on Sea, Everton, Hordle, Keyhaven and Lymington, and SO41 generally. 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.