Patios in Bashley
A lot of these gardens were levelled with the spoil from building the house, so the top foot of ground is softer than it looks and it will not carry paving.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a garden made up during the build, the honest depth of the dig is unknown until somebody opens the ground. Digging through the made ground to something firm is what stops a new patio settling in patches, and it is the line to look for on any quote.
The three calls we get most here are a terrace that has dropped along one edge, slabs that rock where the ground beneath them has consolidated unevenly, and a large garden being reworked where the original paved area is far too small for the house.
All three are answered by opening the ground rather than by measuring the top of it. We dig a trial hole at the edge, find out how far the soft material goes, and take a level off the damp proof course. Then the work goes into one written itemised quote with the excavation, the muck away, the sub base, the edgings, the paving and the jointing on separate lines. The visit and the quote cost nothing.
The work
Big gardens, soft ground and a base worth building
Finding the bottom of the made ground. The excavation goes down until the material stops being builder's spoil and starts being ground, which on a plot like this can be a good deal deeper than the standard figure. What comes out goes by skip or grab lorry and is priced by the load, so the trial hole at the survey is what makes that number honest.
Sub base. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, in layers and whacked as it goes, with a geotextile beneath it where the formation is still soft so the stone cannot work down into it. Then a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of each slab. Not five dabs. Not a screeded sand bed.
Porcelain. Calibrated to a constant thickness, so a large terrace stays flat and the joints stay even across it. It takes up no water, cleans easily and comes with a published slip rating. It is cut wet with a diamond blade and primed on the back, without which nothing bonds to it.
Natural stone. Riven sandstone for warmth, limestone for a flatter and cleaner look, granite where something very hard is wanted, travertine only somewhere sheltered. Most of it is uncalibrated, so every slab is bedded to its own thickness, which is slower and is why stone and porcelain rarely price the same way.
Falls, thresholds and the damp proof course. Water goes away from the house and the paving finishes at least two courses below the DPC. On a bungalow or a house with low patio doors, a threshold drain along the wall takes it at the frame rather than the level being raised.
Edges, steps and retaining. A haunched kerb or a low retaining course with a coping around the perimeter, drainage behind anything holding ground back, and steps of an even rise. On a big terrace the outer edge does a lot of work and it is where a cheap job shows first.
Drainage and jointing. A channel drain at the low end into a gully or a soakaway, a permeable border where the ground will take it, and joints brushed and worked in with a two part compound rather than sand or a bagged grout.
Repairs. Sunk, rocking and lifted slabs, a cracked step, algae on the shaded side, efflorescence and iron staining on newer stone. On a settled patio the slabs are usually fine and the base is the problem.
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 normally permitted development, so most of this needs no planning application and no building control notice. A raised platform is different, and so is a retaining or boundary wall above the usual heights. The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority here rather than the district council, which catches people out, and its property map will tell you what applies to your address before anything is designed.
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 house set back behind a long drive, a bungalow with double gates and a plot where the only route is a side path are three different jobs before stone is ordered. 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. It is around eleven miles from us, so a Bashley address is normally looked at within a couple of days. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The top foot of a 1990s garden is not ground
The largest share of housing around Bashley went up from the 1980s onwards, with the 1990s the busiest decade of all. On sites of that age the gardens were finished the cheap way: spoil from the foundations and the drains was spread across the plot, levelled, given a skim of topsoil and turfed. It grows grass perfectly well. It will not carry a patio.
Made ground consolidates for years, and it does it unevenly, because it was never compacted in layers in the first place. Lay a base on top of it and the patio follows it down, usually in a dish or along one edge, and no amount of relaying the slabs fixes that while the material underneath is still moving. It is the commonest reason a fifteen year old terrace on a newer estate is uneven while the same slabs on an older house are flat.
So on gardens of this age we dig a hole before quoting rather than after. If the soft material is shallow, the job is ordinary. If it runs deep, the choices are to dig through it and pay for the extra muck away, or to build the base thicker over a geotextile and accept a slower start. Either is a decision you should be making with a number in front of you, which is why we would rather find it at the survey.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bashley, Wootton, Sway Road and across into New Milton and Ashley, broadly BH25, under the New Forest National Park Authority. 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
Bashley questions we get asked
Why would the dig go deeper on a newer estate than an old one?
Because the garden was made up during the build. Spoil spread and levelled on a plot is soft for years, so the excavation has to go through it to reach ground worth compacting against. Older gardens have usually settled long ago.
Can you build over made ground rather than dig it out?
Sometimes, with a geotextile and a thicker sub base. It depends how deep the soft material runs and what it is. Where it is a foot of loose spoil, digging it out is the cheaper answer over the life of the patio.
How is the muck away priced?
By the load rather than by the square metre, because that is how it is actually charged. A deeper dig means more loads, and that is why the depth is worth establishing before anyone signs anything.
Who is the planning authority out here?
The New Forest National Park Authority rather than the district council. It makes little difference to a ground level patio, which is normally permitted development, and a real difference to a raised terrace or a wall.
Will a large porcelain terrace stay flat across a big garden?
It will if the base is right. Porcelain is calibrated, so the surface is only as flat as what it is bedded on. On a big terrace we set out with a laser and build the base in compacted layers rather than trusting one pass.
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Open the ground before you price the paving
Thomas digs a trial hole, finds where the made ground stops and prices the dig, the base and the terrace in writing. The visit and the quote are free.