Driveways in Winfrith Newburgh

Paths and paving behind an old cottage. A finished level that has climbed is the usual fault here. Slabs get laid over slabs, the ground rises, and the paving ends up level with or above the damp proof course, or hard against a wall that never had one.

We take the build-up out, drop the level, get the falls running away from the house, and finish with a drainage channel along the wall where the space is too tight to lose the height any other way. Natural stone and porcelain both sit on a full mortar bed for that, and the threshold at the back door is set before anything is cut. For the terrace itself, see patios in Winfrith Newburgh. The village lies in flood zones 2 and 3 with the River Win running through it, so where the water is sent matters more here than the colour of the paving.

Making parking where there is none. Plenty of houses front almost straight onto the street or sit behind a brick and flint boundary wall. Where a bay can be formed out of the front garden it needs an edge restraint or a kerb to hold the surface, a build-up that will carry a car, not just a wheelbarrow, and a route in and out you can use without reversing blind onto the road. If the boundary wall has to be opened up, the new ends are rebuilt and capped, never left raw. A new opening onto the highway also means a crossing, and Planning Portal guidance on dropped kerbs explains how that is applied for.

Loose stone suits the village and it works as long as it is contained: a proper formation and a compacted sub-base under a geotextile membrane, an edge to stop it migrating into the borders, and a bound apron for the first couple of metres at the entrance so it is not carried out onto the lane. On anything that slopes we add a channel drain across the top of the fall. Out on the lanes the drives are mostly block paving and concrete, and the faults are predictable: sunken wheel tracks, a bay that ponds, cracked concrete at a day joint, and weed and green staining in the jointing where the kiln dried sand has washed out. Sinking is almost always the base, not the blocks, so we lift, correct the depth, re-compact, relay the same units and re-sand the joints. Tracks shared with a farm want a real stone depth, a crossfall and a passing place, because rutting starts where water runs along the wheel tracks instead of off them, and potholes are cut out square, not filled with planings. If the base under a drive is sound we will say so on the site visit.

We do not price by the square metre, because the dig decides more than the finish. Access for machines. A cottage on the street with no turning room, a house behind a brick and flint boundary wall, and a bungalow with a long drive have little in common. Whether a digger and grab lorry can reach, or everything goes through a gate by hand, changes the cost.

Depth of dig. Gravel over chalk is usually a firm formation, but wet ground by the river needs a deeper sub-base with a membrane, so more spoil comes out and more stone goes in. Soft spots are dug out and replaced with stone.

Drainage. Away from the river a soakaway usually drains once a percolation test passes, but on low ground by the Win the water needs permeable paving, a channel to a proper outfall or falls to a planted area. Approved Document H covers where it can go.

The surface. Gravel, block paving, resin bound and tarmac all differ, as do edgings. Gravel needs a retaining edge to stop it washing into the lane.

Distance. Travel and muck away over a longer run are on the quote.

Ask any other quote how deep the dig is, what sub-base goes in, where the surface water goes and who takes the spoil.

We lay drives across Winfrith Newburgh and nearby: Crossways, Wool, West Lulworth, Owermoigne and the villages along the Frome valley, 19.8 miles from our Boscombe base, all under Dorset Council. Your contract would be with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Winfrith Newburgh, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The firm is Thomas Hannen's, and he measures up and prices the drive in person. Checkatrade has one verified review from a customer, a 10 out of 10. The site visit is free, as is the written quote listing each item.

Most repairs in Winfrith Newburgh need no application at all. What decides whether a change to the outside of your house does is who the council is, whether a conservation area or a listing applies, and whether the place sits in a protected landscape.