Patios in Blandford Forum, walled town gardens

What comes out first. Nearly every Blandford Forum town garden already has something down: concrete poured in the sixties, quarry tiles off an old scullery, or riven paving bedded on sand. It is broken up and excavated back to a firm formation. Old footings, made ground and tree roots turn up under half of them, so the dig and the muck away are priced by what leaves.

The sub base nobody sees. Under the paving goes MOT Type 1, put in and whacked in thin lifts, and carried past the edge of the slabs on every side. Hardcore raked level by eye is why so many patios rock within three winters. On soft or made up ground a geotextile separator goes under it.

Full mortar bed, never dabs. Each slab goes onto a full wet bed with a slurry primer painted on the back, so there is mortar under all of it. Five dabs leave voids, the voids hold water, and a sharp frost cracks the slab or lifts a corner.

Porcelain, sandstone, limestone and granite. Porcelain is calibrated, so every slab is the same thickness and the joints come out even, and a textured grade keeps its grip in the wet. Indian sandstone is warmer, riven and variable, so the bed is built up under each one. Limestone marks more readily and granite is unforgiving to cut. Travertine and anything polished we would talk you out of on a shaded terrace.

Falls, and the damp proof course. Paving has to fall away from the house and finish at least two courses below the DPC. Where a low threshold leaves no room, you dig down rather than build up, because bridging the damp course puts water into the wall. Approved Document C sets out why that level matters.

Where the water actually goes. A fall is only half of it. A channel across a doorway needs a gully and an outfall. A soakaway only works where the ground will take it. A permeable build up over open graded stone is the other answer, and it keeps the runoff on your own land.

Steps, edging and retaining. Long town plots rarely run flat, so the level change is set out first: generous treads rather than one mean riser, a haunched edging or kerb where paving meets a border, a retaining edge to a raised bed, and coping on a low wall.

Jointing, and the repairs. Joints get a brush in resin compound worked in wet and tooled off, or traditional pointing on an old stone terrace. Open joints are how weeds and water get in. A lifted or rocking slab comes up and goes back on a fresh bed; a corner that has sunk has a base problem under it. Cracked slabs, algae on the shaded side, efflorescence on new sandstone and staining are separate questions.

The slabs are what you pick, but they are seldom the main cost, which is why we never quote by the square metre.

How it gets in. A Georgian house in Blandford Forum with a covered passage, a terrace with no back access, and an estate semi with a side gate price differently on the same area. When every slab is carried through a hallway, the hours climb.

Clearing the ground. Old concrete, raised beds, roots and rubble are dug out and removed load by load.

The damp course. The finished surface has to drop away from the house and stay beneath the damp proof course. That can call for steps, a retaining edge or a channel drain where the garden rises towards the back door.

How the slabs are bedded. A full wet bed holds each slab solid. Dabs leave voids, and the slabs rock and crack. The jointing compound matters as well.

Old garden walls. In a walled town garden the patio often meets old brick, and the edge there needs care so water does not run into the wall.

Ask rival quotes about dig depth and sub-base, full bed or dabs, the falls and the drainage, and the jointing.

Blandford Forum lies 16.8 miles north west of our base in Boscombe. Patio work takes us into the walled gardens of the town, and beyond it to Blandford St Mary, Bryanston and the Winterborne villages, across DT11, where planning sits with Dorset Council.

Our company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Thomas Hannen, the owner, comes round to measure the garden, look at the levels and price the patio himself. A 10 out of 10 from a verified customer is on our Checkatrade profile. Neither the visit nor the itemised written quote costs you anything. Where a house has room to park at the front, driveways in Blandford Forum run into the same access limits as the garden. Before you book a visit in Blandford Forum, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Blandford Forum 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.