Patios in Alderholt, levels before slabs
With no conservation area and nothing listed, the paving is your choice here, so the decision that actually costs money is how much of a sloping garden has to be held back.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Nothing here is listed and there is no conservation area, so the paving itself is entirely your choice. The one thing worth checking before you commit is the ground level: on a plot that slopes, a patio quickly turns into a retaining wall with slabs on top, and that is the part with rules attached.
The calls come in three shapes. A big lawn that wants a sitting area cut into it. An eighties patio that has settled at one end and now sheds water back at the house. And a garden on a slope where somebody wants a level terrace.
We walk the fall of the ground, take levels off the house and work out how much of the job is paving and how much is retaining. Then you get it in writing: the dig, the muck away, the sub base, any retaining structure, the falls, the edgings, the slabs and the jointing on their own lines. The site visit and the itemised quote are free.
The work
Terraces, retaining edges and paving on a slope
Reading the ground first. A garden that drops half a metre across a terrace is a different job from a flat one. We set out where the level surface sits and how much has to be dug into the bank, before anybody talks about slabs.
The dig and the muck away. Cutting a terrace into a slope moves a lot of material. Turf, topsoil, roots, made ground and old concrete get excavated out, and the spoil leaves in a skip or a grab lorry rather than being spread over the lawn to settle later.
The sub base. MOT type 1 in compacted layers, deeper on the filled side of a cut and fill terrace than on the dug side, because that is where settlement shows. Hardcore blinded off will do on a small area. A geotextile between subgrade and stone stops the two mixing on soft ground.
Retaining edges and coping. Where the ground is held back we build it properly: a footing, a retaining wall with a drainage layer and weep holes behind it, and a coping on top. A dry laid edging is not a retaining wall, and the difference shows the first wet winter.
Steps between levels. Full bed treads with an overhang so water drips clear of the riser, an even going and rise across the flight, and a handrail fixing built in where the drop needs one.
Porcelain paving. Calibrated, so every slab is the same thickness and the bed stays even, with almost no absorption and a slip rated finish. It suits the larger modern gardens here and it stays clean without much doing to it.
Sandstone, limestone and granite. Riven sandstone for a softer look against brick, limestone or travertine for a flatter and more even surface, granite for step treads and a sett border. None is calibrated, so each slab gets bedded to its own thickness.
Full bed and jointing. A full wet mortar bed under every slab with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain, never dabs and never a sand screed. Joints get a resin grout brushed in while damp, or traditional pointing in mortar on riven stone.
Falls, the damp course and the drainage. The surface falls away from the house and finishes at least two courses below the damp proof course. Runoff goes to an ACO channel and a gully, or through a permeable build up into a soakaway at the bottom of the slope, never onto a neighbour's ground.
Repairs. Lifting and relaying a sunk bay, a rocking or cracked flag, rebuilding a retaining edge that has bowed, repointing joints washed out, and dealing with staining, efflorescence and a slippery green surface where a terrace sits in shade.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: excavation and muck away, the sub base, the falls and where water goes, edgings and steps, the slabs themselves, and jointing on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Dorset Council is the planning authority. There is no conservation area here and no listed entries in the village, which is rare on this patch and makes the paving a free choice. What is not automatic is height: a retaining or boundary wall has limits, and the Planning Portal sets out where those sit. A raised terrace is treated differently from paving at ground level, and building control has an interest once a structure is holding ground back or a drain is being altered.
Cost
What decides the price of a patio
No rate per square metre, because the slabs are the part you choose and the smallest part of the price.
Getting to it. A detached house with a gate wide enough for a machine, a semi with a barrow width path and a bungalow on a bank where everything is carried uphill are three different jobs. Everything comes in and goes out through the garden, often through a side gate or the house. A patio you can barrow to directly is a different job from one where every slab is carried. The work at height rules still apply to the dig and the machinery.
What is coming out before anything goes down. An old concrete slab, a raised bed, tree roots or made ground all have to be dug out and taken away, and that is priced by the load rather than by the metre. The dig is where a patio quote is won or lost.
Falls, levels and the damp course. A patio has to fall away from the house and finish at least two courses below the damp proof course, and getting that right often means steps, a retaining edge or a drainage channel. Laying a new patio up against a wall at the wrong level is the single most expensive mistake on this kind of job.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the dig goes and what sub base is specified, whether the slabs are laid on a full wet bed or on dabs, what the falls are and where the water goes, whether edgings and steps are included, and what the jointing compound is. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If it has become a hazard
A patio that has lifted, sunk or turned slippery
Ring rather than use the form. A slab that has lifted at one corner or a step that has dropped is a trip, and a north facing patio in winter can be genuinely dangerous. We can usually lift and re-lay the worst of it quickly, then look properly at whether the base under the rest has gone. A retaining edge that has started to lean is the one to ring about early, because once it moves it takes the paving above it with it. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Nothing to ask permission for, except the wall
This is one of the few villages we cover with no conservation area and nothing listed at all. That is genuinely useful: the appearance of your paving is nobody's business but yours, and there is no consent to wait for.
The catch is that a lot of the gardens here are on a slope, and a level patio on a sloping plot is half paving and half structure. Once you are holding ground back, height limits apply to the wall, and the wall itself has to be built for the load with a footing under it and drainage behind it. Ground water is the thing that pushes a garden wall over, not the soil.
So settle the level first, get the retaining priced as its own item, and choose the slabs last. That is why two quotes for the same sloping garden can be so far apart: one has priced a wall and the other an edging.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover the village, Cranborne, Verwood and the lanes towards the county boundary, broadly SP6, under Dorset Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of 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.
Questions
Alderholt questions we get asked
Do I need planning permission for a patio in this village?
For paving at ground level in your own garden, normally no. What can need it is a raised terrace or a retaining wall above the permitted height, especially near a boundary or a highway. We check the levels and tell you which side of that line you are on.
How do you build a level patio in a sloping garden?
By cutting into the high side and holding the ground back, rather than piling material onto the low side. The cut half sits on undisturbed ground and the filled half gets a deeper compacted sub base, because fill is where settlement shows first.
Is an edging the same as a retaining wall?
No, and the confusion is expensive. An edging holds the outer course of paving in place. A retaining wall holds earth and water back, so it needs a footing, a drainage layer behind it and weep holes through it. Only one of the two will stand up to a bank.
Why has my retaining edge bowed outwards?
Nearly always water. Soil behind a wall gets heavy when it is saturated and pushes hard. Without a drainage layer and weep holes the pressure has nowhere to go. Rebuilding with drainage behind it costs less than doing it twice.
Can you build steps down to a lower lawn at the same time?
Yes, and it is better done together. The step flight sets out from the finished patio level, so if it comes later the going and rise rarely work out evenly. Treads go on a full bed with an overhang so water drips clear of the riser.
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Get the retaining priced separately from the paving
Thomas comes out, walks the fall of the garden, sets the finished level and prices the dig, any retaining, the base, the falls and the jointing in writing. The visit and the quote are free.