Patios in Bere Regis, kept dry at the wall

The detail at the wall matters. A Bere Regis patio that simply butts a wall gives splashing rain somewhere to sit. On an exposed elevation we finish with a linear channel or a gravel margin along the base of the building, so water landing there is taken away instead of soaking in.

Falls and the damp course. The surface falls away from the house across the whole area, and the finished level sits at least two courses below the damp proof course. Where the threshold is low, a recessed channel across the doorway does what raising the paving must never do.

The dig. Turf, topsoil, old concrete, a shed base, roots and made ground in a Bere Regis garden get excavated back to a firm formation. Spoil goes out in a grab lorry or a skip, or by barrow through a side gate, priced as its own line.

The sub base. MOT type 1 in compacted layers rather than tipped and raked, with a geotextile between subgrade and stone where the ground is soft. Depth comes from the dig, and along the wall it usually goes deeper.

Full bed, never dabs. Every slab on a full wet mortar bed, with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain. Dabbed slabs leave voids, and on a wall exposed to driven rain those voids are exactly where water collects and frost does its damage.

Porcelain. Calibrated to a single thickness, almost no absorption, slip rated finishes. On the weather side of a Bere Regis house that resistance to water is the whole point: it does not darken, does not bloom and does not hold algae the way a porous stone does.

Sandstone, limestone and granite. Riven sandstone suits the older buildings in Bere Regis and takes a sealer. Limestone and travertine are flatter and paler but mark more readily. Granite is dense and makes a good step tread. None is calibrated, so each piece is bedded to its own thickness.

Drainage. An ACO channel at the wall and along the low side, taking runoff to a gully with a positive outfall, or a permeable build up over a stone reservoir where the ground takes water. What leaves the surface stays on your own land.

Edges, steps and retaining. Haunched edging or a kerb to hold the outer course, a retaining edge with a coping where a border sits above the paving, and step treads on a full bed with an overhang so water drips clear of the riser.

Jointing and repairs. A resin grout brushed into damp joints, or hand pointing in mortar where the work meets old fabric. We also lift and relay sunk and rocking flags, cut out cracked ones, repoint washed out joints and deal with staining, efflorescence and a slippery green surface.

Paving is the part you pick from a brochure, and it is rarely the biggest part of the bill. The route in. A garden you can reach with a small digger through a gate is a different job from one where every bag of sharp sand and every slab is carried through the house.

The dig. Old concrete, a buried path, roots or builders' rubble have to come out and go away by the load. On the chalk under Bere Regis the sub-base needs a dry, firm formation, because chalk worked in the rain turns to slurry, and a soft base shows it as rocking slabs.

Levels and water. Water has to run away from the house, and the finished paving has to stay under the damp proof course. If the lawn is higher than the floor inside, that takes steps down, a retaining edge or a channel drain, and whatever water it catches needs an outlet. Chalk usually takes a soakaway well, which shapes the design.

Laying. Slabs bedded on a full wet bed stay put. Slabs on dabs tend to rock and crack.

Put the same questions to anyone else. How deep is the dig, and what goes in as the sub-base? Are the slabs fully bedded? Which way does the water run, and what fills the joints?

The most exposed side of a house in Bere Regis faces south west, and that is the direction the wet weather arrives from. Wind driven rain does not behave like rain falling straight down. It hits the elevation, runs down the face of the wall and arrives at the bottom in quantity, right where the patio meets the brickwork.

Splash back is the first result: rain landing on a hard surface bounces, and it throws water up the wall a good couple of hundred millimetres. If the paving sits high, that splash lands above whatever damp protection the house has. The other is volume, because the whole elevation drains onto a narrow strip of your patio.

So on the weather side the falls run away from the building rather than along it, the level is kept well down, and the strip at the base of the wall gets a linear drain or a gravel margin instead of a slab butted to the brick. Small part of the area, large part of whether the wall stays dry.

Our Boscombe base is 17 miles from Bere Regis. We build patios in the village, in Bloxworth and Milborne St Andrew, and on the lanes out towards the heath, all within BH20 and under Dorset Council. The company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Bere Regis, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen owns the business and he visits your garden to measure up and price the patio himself. On Checkatrade, a verified customer marked us 10 out of 10. There is no cost for the visit or for a written quote with every stage itemised. Driven rain hits the front wall as well, and a driveway in Bere Regis laid against the house needs the same fall away from it.

Most repairs in Bere Regis 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.