Driveways and patios in Winfrith Newburgh

Patios and paths behind an old cottage. The commonest thing we are asked to put right here is a finished level that has climbed. 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. 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 rather than 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 rather than 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 rather than 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 rather than off them, and potholes cut out square rather than filled with planings. If the base under a drive is sound we will say so on the site visit.

No rate per square metre works here, because the dig decides more than the finish. A cottage fronting the street with no room to turn, a house behind a brick and flint boundary wall and a bungalow with a long gravel drive out towards the fields are three different jobs before a shovel goes in. What comes out of the hole and how far it has to travel are the real variables, so whether a machine and a grab lorry can reach the work, or everything goes through a side gate, changes the disposal as much as the dig, and on ground that floods the drainage is a design item rather than an afterthought. Ask any quote how deep it is digging.

We cover Winfrith Newburgh, Wool, West Lulworth, Owermoigne, Crossways and the villages along the Frome valley, and DT2 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.