Patios in Bransgore
Plots here are big enough that the patio does not have to sit against the back wall, and putting it where the evening sun is changes how it has to be built.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On a large Bransgore plot the patio can go wherever the sun is. Away from the house you lose the wall, the level and the gully that normally do half the thinking, so the edge restraint and the drainage have to be designed rather than assumed.
The jobs here come in two shapes. A tired square of concrete flags behind the house that has sunk, gone green and holds a puddle by the door. Or a big lawn and a family who want a proper sitting area out in it, with steps down from the house and somewhere to put a table for eight.
Both start the same way. We walk the plot, take a survey of the levels, look at the ground where you want to sit and work out what the water will do, then price the dig, the base, the edging, the drainage and the paving on separate lines in a written itemised quote. The site visit and the quote are free.
The work
Where the patio goes, and what that costs
Deciding where it should actually sit. Two in five houses here are detached and the plots are generous, so the patio does not have to be against the back wall. We walk the garden with you, work out where the sun is at six and whether the ground there is firm or soft. A survey of the levels comes first and the paving last.
Against the house, or out in the garden. Against the wall you are tied to the damp proof course; we chalk the DPC on the brickwork and finish two courses below it, with the threshold detailed so nothing washes back to the door. Out in the garden that constraint goes and another arrives: no wall to fall away from and no gully, so the falls and the runoff are designed rather than assumed.
Topsoil, roots and what leaves the site. A lawn is not a base. Turf and topsoil are excavated to formation, and out here that is often soft ground with roots through it. Old concrete and any made ground go the same way. Access is usually good enough for a machine, so the spoil leaves in a grab lorry or a skip rather than by barrow.
The base. Geotextile membrane, MOT Type 1 hardcore compacted in layers rather than tipped in one lift, a sand screed to level it, then a full bed of mortar under each slab with a slurry primer on the back. Dabs are quicker and they are why a slab ends up rocking, hollow and cracked. A proper mortar bed does not.
The paving. Porcelain is calibrated to a constant thickness and stays clean under trees. Indian sandstone is hand cut and suits an older brick elevation, limestone and granite wear hard, and travertine holds water. We bring samples and wet them, because dry paving in a yard is not the colour you will live with.
Edges with nothing to lean on. A patio in the middle of a lawn has no wall to restrain it, so the perimeter is held with a haunched kerb or an edging bedded in concrete, capped with a coping where it stands proud, and a gravel border run round for the mower. Steps and a low retaining wall follow the same rule.
Falls, and where the water is allowed to go. The surface falls at about one in eighty into an ACO channel, an existing gully or a soakaway set clear of any foundation. Where the runoff has nowhere to travel we build permeable, which is a different sub base rather than a different slab.
Jointing and the patio you already have. Joints take a brush in resin compound, a grout slurry or hand pointing in mortar. If your paving has only lifted or sunk in one bay we quote the lift and relay. If it is slippery with algae, or showing efflorescence and staining after a wet winter, that is cleaning and jointing rather than a rebuild.
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 ordinarily permitted development, so planning permission is rarely needed; the government guidance on when permission is required sets out where that stops and a raised platform is the usual trigger. There are 13 listed entries in the parish and no conservation area over the village itself, so appearance is not controlled here, though a retaining or garden wall has its own height rules under the rules on garden walls. The level against the house is building control rather than planning, and comes from Approved Document C.
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 plot you can bring a machine and a skip onto, a cottage where everything goes through a side gate, and a garden a hundred feet long are three different jobs before a slab is cut. 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. Bransgore is under eight miles from us, so a slab that has lifted at a step or a greasy path to the door is normally looked at within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
A patio away from the house is a different build
Bransgore is a village of large plots. Two in five dwellings are detached, gardens run long, and there is usually somewhere better to sit than the strip of ground immediately behind the kitchen window. That freedom is worth using, and it changes the job.
Against the house a patio is half designed for you. The wall sets the level, the damp proof course sets the ceiling, the gully is already there. Move fifteen metres down the garden and all of that goes. The ground is softer because it has never been built on, the fall has to be invented, and there is no drain within reach.
None of that is difficult, but it has to be priced honestly. A patio out in a lawn needs more sub base than one against a house, a restrained edge on all four sides and a decision about drainage. If you are comparing quotes for a plot here, ask what the perimeter is held with and where the runoff goes. Those answers tell you more than the name on the slab.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Bransgore, Thorney Hill Road, Ringwood Road, Neacroft and Waterditch, broadly BH23, in the New Forest district. 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
Bransgore questions we get asked
Does a patio away from the house still need drainage?
It needs it more. Against a wall the water has a gully to run to. Out in a lawn there is nothing, so it either falls to a soakaway set clear of any foundation or the patio is built permeable and takes the rain through the joints.
What holds the edge of a patio in the middle of a lawn?
A haunched kerb or an edging unit bedded in concrete all the way round. Without it the outer slabs creep, the joints open and the mower catches the corners. A gravel border keeps the grass off the paving.
Is the ground out in the garden weaker than next to the house?
Usually. It has never been built on, so there is topsoil, roots and soft ground under the turf. It comes out to formation and is replaced with compacted hardcore, which is why the dig on an open lawn is deeper than people expect.
Will a patio under trees stay green?
Anything under a canopy collects leaf litter and algae. Porcelain sheds it and washes clean, natural stone holds it and wants doing once a year. The fall and the jointing decide whether water sits there or leaves.
When could you start, and how many days would you be on site?
We book a start date at the quote rather than leaving it open. As for how long, most patios here run to a week or ten days, and a large area with a soakaway, steps and an edge on four sides takes longer while the concrete cures.
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Free quote
Decide where it should go before you price the paving
Thomas walks the plot, takes the levels, works out the edge and the drainage and prices it in writing. The visit and the quote are free.