Patios in Boldre, dug down to something firm

Finding the bottom of the made ground. A trial hole is the only honest way. Site spoil looks like garden soil until you put a foot on it in the wet. We excavate until the formation stops moving, which on some plots is deeper than a standard build up allows for.

The dig and the muck away. Turf, topsoil, buried rubble, old concrete, pipe offcuts and roots all come out. There is more spoil than people expect, and it leaves in a grab lorry or a skip rather than being spread over the rest of the garden.

The sub base. MOT type 1 in compacted layers with a geotextile between the subgrade and the stone. On made ground that membrane is not optional: without it the soft material below works up into the stone, the sub base loses its grading and the surface follows it down.

Full bed, never dabs. Every slab on a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain. Not five dabs, not a sand screed. Where the ground below has any give in it, a dabbed slab finds it first and cracks across the middle.

Porcelain paving. Calibrated to one thickness, so the bed stays even and the joints line up. Almost no absorption and slip rated finishes available, which suits the shaded corner of a small estate garden where stone would go green.

Sandstone, limestone and granite. Riven sandstone gives warmth against brick and takes a sealer. Limestone and travertine are flatter and more even in tone. Granite is dense and makes the best step tread. None is calibrated, so each piece is bedded to its own thickness.

Falls, levels and the damp course. A fall away from the house across the whole surface, and a finished level at least two courses below the damp proof course. Where the back door threshold is low we drop the patio and put in a shallow step rather than build the level up.

Drainage. An ACO channel across a low threshold into a gully with a positive outfall, or a permeable build up over a stone reservoir where the ground will take water. Runoff off a new surface stays on your own ground.

Edges, steps and retaining. A haunched edging or kerb holds the outer course, a retaining edge with a coping holds a border or a bank, and step treads go 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 pointing in mortar on riven stone. We also lift and relay sunk bays and rocking flags, cut out cracked ones, repoint washed out joints and deal with staining, efflorescence and a slippery green surface.

No rate per square metre, because the slabs are the part you choose and the smallest part of the price.

Getting to it. A detached house with a gate wide enough for a machine, a mid terrace with no side access and a bungalow on a corner plot are three different jobs before a slab 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.

More than four in ten of the homes here went up between the early eighties and the late two thousands, and that shapes the ground work more than the architecture does. When an estate is built, the subsoil out of the foundations and the drainage runs has to go somewhere, and it usually goes back over the plots at the end under a thin layer of topsoil.

Grass does not care. It roots in the top few inches and looks healthy. A patio does care, because that material was never compacted in layers, it holds water and it consolidates for years afterwards. Lay a base straight onto it and the terrace settles unevenly, usually worst where a service trench used to run.

So the dig is the honest part of the quote. We go through the made ground to something firm, put a membrane down so the two layers cannot mix, and build the sub base in compacted lifts. More spoil leaves than on a shallow job, and that is why the patio is still level five winters later.

We cover the parish, Pilley, Sway and the lanes down towards the river, broadly SO41, 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.