Patios in Ashley Heath
Heath sand digs easily and drains beautifully, and it holds nothing in place, so the membrane, the sub base depth and the edge restraint are what your money buys here.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Sandy ground makes the dig and the drainage easier at Ashley Heath and the base harder. A separating membrane, full depth compacted hardcore and properly haunched edges are what stop a patio on this ground spreading and settling.
The jobs here fall into two groups. A patio laid twenty years ago where the outside course has crept away from the rest and the joints have opened up. And a bungalow owner who wants the back garden done properly, usually with a wide sliding door going in at the same time.
Both are decided under the paving rather than on it. We come out, dig a trial hole to see what we are building on, take a survey of the levels, then price the dig, the membrane, the sub base, the edging, the drainage and the paving on separate lines in a written itemised quote. The site visit and the quote are free.
The work
Building on ground that will not hold itself
What the ground gives you, and what it does not. Heath sand digs easily, drains freely and makes a soakaway a realistic option rather than a hopeful one. What it will not do is hold a formation. Sand moves when it is wet and loaded, so everything below the slab has to be built rather than assumed.
The dig and the muck away. Turf, topsoil, old concrete, flags bedded on sand and any made ground are excavated to formation and leave the site. On this ground that is quicker and cleaner than on clay, and it is one of the few places a patio quote gets cheaper rather than dearer. Access on most plots here takes machinery and a skip.
Separating the base from the sand. A geotextile membrane goes down first, and on this ground it earns its keep. Without it the MOT Type 1 works its way down into the sand over a few winters and the sub base quietly loses depth. With it, the hardcore stays where it was compacted.
Base and bed. Type 1 hardcore laid and compacted in layers to full depth, a sharp sand screed to level it off, then a full bed of mortar under every slab with a slurry primer on the back. A proper mortar bed does not go hollow. Slabs on dabs do, and a hollow slab is the one that finishes up rocking, cracked and holding water.
Edges, because sand does not hold one. On heavier ground an edge slab has something to push against. Here it has nothing. Every perimeter is restrained with a haunched kerb or an edging bedded in concrete, a coping caps anything retaining, and a gravel border runs along the wall. Skip that and the outside course creeps outwards and the joints open.
Levels against the house. Most of the housing here is single storey, so height is tight. We chalk the DPC on the brickwork, set the paving two courses below it with a fall running off the wall, and use a recessed channel where a threshold has to stay flush rather than adding a step.
The paving, and the joints. Porcelain is calibrated and the easiest to keep; sandstone is hand cut and warmer; limestone and granite wear harder; travertine holds water. Joints get a brush in resin compound, a grout slurry or hand pointing in mortar, never loose sand, which on an open plot like these simply blows and washes out.
Water, and the patio you already have. The fall runs into an ACO channel, an existing gully or a soakaway, which on this ground genuinely works, and a permeable build up where the runoff has nowhere else to go. Where a bay has lifted or sunk, or gone slippery with algae and shown efflorescence and staining, we quote the lift and relay rather than a rebuild.
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.
Paving a garden at ground level is ordinarily permitted development, so planning permission is seldom in play and the government guidance on when permission is required sets out where that stops. There is no conservation area over Ashley Heath and a single listed entry, so appearance is not controlled. Garden and retaining walls have their own height rules under the rules on garden walls, and the level against the house is building control rather than planning, from Approved Document C.
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 bungalow with a wide side path, a corner plot you can get machinery and a skip onto, and a garden reached only through the house 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. Ashley Heath is about eight miles from us, so a slab that has dropped by a door or an edge that has spread and left a gap is normally looked at within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Heath sand is a gift and a problem
The clue is in the name. Ashley Heath sits on heathland sand, and that ground behaves very differently under a patio from the clay a few miles north. Some of the difference is in your favour and some of it is not, and both are worth knowing before you buy.
In your favour: it digs quickly, the spoil is light, and water goes away into it. A soakaway here is a real option rather than a percolation test waiting to fail, so a patio can usually deal with its own rainfall without a long run to a gully. Against you: sand is not a foundation. It shifts when it is wet and loaded, it lets a sub base sink slowly into it if nothing separates the two, and it offers no sideways resistance at all, which is why an unrestrained edge on this ground creeps outwards year on year.
So the money here goes into three places that never show. A geotextile membrane under the hardcore. Full depth Type 1, compacted in layers. And every edge properly haunched in concrete. Do those and this is excellent ground to build a patio on. Leave them out and the sand takes it apart quietly, one winter at a time.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ashley Heath, Hightown, Horton Road and the roads towards St Leonards and St Ives, broadly BH24, 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
Ashley Heath questions we get asked
Does sandy ground make a soakaway worth doing?
It is the real advantage of building here. Sand takes water readily, so a patio can often deal with its own rainfall on the plot instead of running a channel all the way to an existing gully. It still has to sit well clear of the foundations.
Why has the edge of my old patio moved outwards?
Because there was nothing holding it. Sand gives no sideways support, so every winter the outside course pushes out a fraction and the joints behind it open. Re-laying the perimeter on a haunched concrete edging stops it, and the middle can often stay.
Why put a membrane between the sand and the stone?
To keep two materials apart. Without one, the stone sub base slowly works down into the sand and the sand works up into the stone, and the depth you paid for is not there in ten years. It is a small cost and it does a lot of work.
Is a patio cheaper to build on sand than on clay?
The dig is, and so is getting rid of the spoil, because it is light and comes out fast. The base costs a little more because the depth and the membrane matter. It usually evens out, and we show you both parts on the quote.
Does building on sand take longer than on heavier ground?
The dig is faster and the base takes more care, so it evens out. People ask how long in total: about a week for a straightforward patio, nearer ten days with a recessed channel, steps or a soakaway, because the haunching has to cure.
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Find out what is under your garden first
Thomas comes out, digs a trial hole, takes the levels and prices the base and the edges honestly in writing. The visit and the quote are free.