Driveways and patios in Woodlands

Taking out the original drive. Nearly half the housing here went up between 1945 and 1982, most of it in the late 1950s and early 1960s, and the concrete and tarmac that went down with those houses was often a couple of inches laid on the natural ground with no formation and no edge. It cracks in the middle, ruts where the wheels sit, spreads sideways into the borders and grows weeds along every joint. Patching it is money you will spend twice. We break it out, dig to a proper depth, lay a geotextile membrane, compact the sub-base in layers and only then decide the surface. Block paving, resin bound, tarmac and concrete will all sit happily on that. None of them will sit on what is there now.

Room for a second car. Frontages here are wide and the drives on them usually are not, so widening is often a better job than relaying, because it lets us build a turning space and nobody has to reverse out onto the lane blind. Matching an existing surface across a join rarely works and we will say so: an old tarmac drive and a new bay always read as two different things, so either take the lot or choose a material where the join is a deliberate border rather than a bad match. Where an access is being made or widened the crossing itself is a dropped kerb, and Planning Portal guidance on dropped kerbs covers how that is applied for. Where the lane is unfenced and stock can wander, a gate or a grid is part of the design rather than an afterthought.

Plenty of plots here have mature trees on them or right over the boundary, and roots are the usual reason a slab is rocking or a run of block paving has heaved into a hump. Cutting roots to make a level surface can kill the tree or make it unsafe, so where it matters we build over them instead: a shallower dig, a root barrier at the edge, and a flexible surface that can be lifted and relaid in an afternoon rather than concrete that will crack again. The ground here drains slowly and sits in flood zone 2 with a stream a few tens of metres away, so a soakaway is sized from a percolation test rather than assumed and may need a positive outfall. Porcelain, natural stone and concrete flags go on a full mortar bed, falls running away from the wall, and the finished level kept clear of the damp proof course, because paving laid over paving until it buried the damp course is one of the commonest causes of damp we are asked to look at. Where a level threshold is wanted at a back door, the drainage channel that makes it work has to be designed in at the start. Loose stone works if it is contained, with an edge restraint, a compacted base and a bound apron at the lane. Repairs are often the honest answer, and if the base underneath is sound we will tell you on the site visit.

A price here is mostly about the way in and what comes out. A 1960s bungalow with a wide frontage, a detached house set back behind trees and a cottage on a narrow lane each want a different plant and a different disposal before any stone is ordered. Roots, the depth of the dig and the volume of muck are the variables that matter, and on ground that drains slowly the outfall is a cost of its own. Ask a competing quote what happens to the water once it is off the surface.

We cover Woodlands, Netley Marsh, Ashurst, Bartley, Cadnam and the lanes along the eastern edge of the Forest, and SO40 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.