Patios in Barton on Sea
A seat on the clifftop is a lovely idea in June and a wind tunnel in October, which is why where the paving goes matters as much as what it is made of.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Along the Barton on Sea clifftop the useful question is not how big the patio should be, but where in the garden anybody will actually want to sit. Get the sheltered corner right first, then choose a surface that copes with salt and stays safe underfoot when it is wet.
The housing in Barton on Sea throws up a terrace that has sunk at one end, a slab that rocks by the back door, and a bungalow garden being reworked because the old paving is too exposed to use for half the year.
All three want the same start. We lift a slab, look at the bed under it, take a level off the damp proof course and walk your Barton on Sea garden to find where the wind drops. Then the work goes into one written itemised quote: the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the edgings, the paving and the jointing on separate lines, so it can be compared line for line with anybody else's. The site visit and the quote are free.
The work
Sheltered seating, hard surfaces and salt
Clearing the ground comes first. Turf, an old concrete apron, a rockery or a section of tired paving in a Barton on Sea garden all have to be excavated out to a firm formation before anything is built. The spoil leaves by skip or grab lorry and is priced by the load rather than by the square metre. It is the least interesting line on a quote and the one that moves the total most.
Base and bedding. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, laid and whacked in layers, then slabs on a full wet mortar bed with a primer slurry on the back of each one. Never on dabs. Dabs leave voids, voids hold water, and on the Barton on Sea coast where nothing ever quite dries out that is exactly how a slab starts to rock.
Porcelain, and why it suits Barton on Sea. It absorbs almost nothing, so salt spray and constant damp have little to work on, and outdoor ranges publish a slip rating instead of leaving you to find out in November. Calibrated thickness keeps the joints even. It is cut wet with a diamond blade and it must be primed, because nothing sticks to the back of it otherwise.
Natural stone. Sandstone, limestone, granite and travertine all lay beautifully and all stay wetter for longer in the Barton on Sea air. Sandstone is the forgiving one, granite the hardest wearing, limestone and travertine the two that mark. If a terrace is open to the south west we will say honestly which of them will need scrubbing.
Falls and the damp proof course. Water goes away from the house, and the paving finishes at least two courses below the DPC. Barton on Sea bungalow thresholds sit low, so where a door will not allow it we drop the level and run a threshold channel along the wall rather than build up to the frame.
Shelter, steps and edges. A low retaining wall with a coping, a raised bed as a windbreak, a step or two down into the lee of the house, and a haunched edge or kerb holding the whole thing in. Fixings and gratings go in stainless or polymer, because galvanised metal near the sea gives up early.
Drainage and joints. A channel drain at the low side into a gully or soakaway so runoff stays on your ground, a permeable border where the soil will take it, and joints brushed and worked with a two part compound rather than sand or a bagged grout.
Repairs. Lifted and sunk slabs, a cracked step, green algae on the shaded half, efflorescence and iron staining on newer stone. Sometimes an afternoon, sometimes a sign the base has gone.
How it runs
Building a patio behind a bungalow near the cliff
Thomas comes round to Barton on Sea, walks the garden with you, compares the ground level with the damp course, and works out how barrows and pallets will get in. His written price separates the excavation and muck away, the sub base, the falls and drainage, edgings and steps, the slabs and the jointing. Thomas stays your contact from the first cut in the lawn to the last brushed joint.
In Barton on Sea, a lot of back gardens are reached through a side gate beside a bungalow or garage. If that gate is narrow, materials come through by hand, and we plan the days around it. On a ground floor flat with a shared garden, the freeholder has to agree first. We protect the lawn and the route through with boards, keep the back step usable each night and sweep up daily. Spoil and old slabs leave with us. If we uncover an old concrete base, roots or a broken drain, the dig stops there until you have seen a photograph and agreed a price.
Paving at ground level in a garden is usually permitted development, with no planning or building control needed. Decking, a raised platform, or a wall above the standard heights, is different, and the height rules apply. The planning authority is New Forest District Council, and it is worth checking the other consents you might need before designing a retaining wall.
Cost
Clay, wind and levels: what a garden terrace costs to build
A Barton on Sea terrace has no rate per square metre. The slabs you pick are the smallest part of the bill. Getting materials in. A clifftop bungalow with a drive running to a side gate, a detached house with double gates, and a first floor flat reached by a shared path do not load and unload the same way. Carrying every slab takes much longer than wheeling them in.
Clearing the ground. Old concrete, raised beds, roots or rubble fill must be dug out and taken away by the load. That part of the job is where quotes differ most.
Clay and weather. The clay in Barton on Sea shifts through the year, so the sub base goes deeper than on sandy ground to stop slabs rocking. Where the garden faces the sea, wind driven rain and salt get at the joints, so the jointing compound matters.
Where it meets the house. The finished paving must be at least two courses below the damp proof course and slope gently away. On a bungalow where the garden rises at the back, that can mean digging down, adding a step or a low retaining edge, and sometimes a drainage channel along the wall. Getting this wrong sends water towards the house, which costs far more to fix than doing it right.
Before you sign anything, find out from the other quotes how far down they dig, what the sub base is made of, whether the slabs sit on a full wet bed or on dabs, whether edgings and steps are included, and where the falls send the rainwater.
If it has become a hazard
A slab that rocks or a step that has dropped
A lifted corner or a sunken step is a trip, and a shaded patio that stays wet all winter can be dangerous underfoot. Put a planter over the worst slab and scrub the green growth with a stiff brush until we come.
Ring us for this; the form is for quotes. When we come out, we lift and re-lay the worst slabs, then check whether the base under the rest has gone. On clay, a slab that sinks after a dry summer can be the ground moving rather than a poor bed, and we check for that too. Work is booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and if we miss your call we ring back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
On the clifftop, the wind decides where you sit
Barton on Sea sits high and open, a little over a kilometre from the water, and the prevailing weather comes in off the south west with nothing in front of it. That changes what a patio is for. A big square of paving in the middle of an exposed lawn gets used on a handful of still evenings a year, and everybody ends up back by the kitchen door.
So we lay Barton on Sea patios out around shelter rather than around the view. The usable spot is usually tucked against the house or behind a garage, out of the funnel between two properties, with a low wall, a raised bed or a run of planting doing the work of a windbreak. A sail or a pergola then wants proper fixings and, on a wall, something set into the brickwork rather than plugged into a joint. Keep the seating area lower than the surrounding ground where you can, because a raised deck on a clifftop plot catches everything.
The other local point is salt. It keeps surfaces damp between showers, so an open terrace here greens over faster than the same stone inland, and it eats cheap metal. Porcelain with a decent slip rating, stainless fixings and a shaded corner you can actually reach with a brush will save you a lot of Saturdays.
Who you are dealing with
Your patio, from our Boscombe base
We are based in Boscombe, seven and a half miles away. Patios behind the bungalows of Barton Court, gardens in Becton and on the clifftop roads, and across into New Milton are all ones we quote for, with planning decided by New Forest District Council.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is a company registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. It is Thomas Hannen's firm, and he walks your garden with you and prices the patio himself. One verified Checkatrade customer marked us 10 out of 10. The visit costs you nothing, and there is no charge for the itemised quote either. Salt wind treats a front drive no better, and driveways in Barton on Sea get the same thought about grip and surface. Before you book a visit in Barton on Sea, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Barton on Sea?
Most repairs in Barton on Sea 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.
| Question | In Barton on Sea |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Barton on Sea. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Barton on Sea, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Barton on Sea. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Barton on Sea. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Barton on Sea
Where is the best place to put a patio on an exposed plot?
Usually not where the view is. The spot people use is the sheltered one, close to the house or behind a garage, out of the gap between two buildings. We walk the garden with you on the survey and point out where the wind actually drops.
Does sea air really shorten the life of a patio?
It shortens the life of the metal in it, and it keeps the surface damp so algae takes hold sooner. The stone or porcelain itself is fine. We specify stainless or polymer for gratings, restraints and fixings for that reason.
Which surface is safest underfoot in wet weather?
An outdoor porcelain with a published slip rating, or a riven textured sandstone. Polished or honed finishes look superb in a brochure and are a poor idea on a shaded coastal terrace. It is worth asking for the rating in writing.
Can you build a low wall to break the wind at the same time?
Yes, and it is usually the right money. A retaining or screen wall with a coping, tied into the paving and drained behind, turns an unusable corner into the part of the garden people sit in. Heights are the thing to check before it is designed.
Our bungalow doorway is almost at ground level. What then?
Then the paving comes down, not up. The finished surface has to sit at least two courses below the damp proof course, so we drop the level and run a threshold drain along the wall to take the water at the door.
Nearby, and next door
Patios near Barton on Sea
Nearby places we also cover for patios, with straight-line distances from Barton on Sea, and the other trades we offer in Barton on Sea itself.
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Our other trades in Barton on Sea
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Find the sheltered corner before you buy the slabs
Thomas walks the garden, works out where the patio will actually get used, and prices the whole job in writing. The visit and the quote are free.