Patios in Broadstone, cut into a slope
Gardens along this ridge run uphill or down, so the terrace is really groundworks: a cut, a retaining edge and somewhere for the water behind it to go.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Broadstone is built across a ridge, and a lot of its gardens run uphill or downhill from the back door rather than lying flat. On a sloping plot a patio stops being paving and becomes a small piece of groundworks: a cut, a retaining edge, a set of steps and somewhere for the water behind the wall to go.
The calls tend to be about a retaining wall that has started to lean, a terrace that has slipped downhill and opened its joints, or a bank the family simply cannot use because it is too steep to put a chair on.
We take levels across the fall, work out how much has to be cut and how much held back, and decide whether one terrace or two will actually work. Then it goes into a written itemised quote, with the dig, the retaining, the drainage, the paving and the jointing on their own lines. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Terracing a garden that will not sit still
Cut and fill. The first decision on any slope is where the level sits. Cutting into the bank gives you solid ground to build on and produces spoil. Filling gives you a level quickly and produces a patio that settles for years afterwards. We cut wherever we can, and where filling cannot be avoided it goes in compacted in layers, not tipped.
Retaining edges and walls. Anything holding soil back is built on a footing, not bedded on sand. Low retaining courses are haunched in concrete; a taller wall wants a proper base, a drainage layer of clean stone behind it and weep holes or a land drain out to daylight. Water pressure behind a wall, not the soil, is what pushes most of them over.
Steps. On a slope the steps are the part you use every day and the part that gets skimped. Consistent rise and going, a footing under every flight, a bullnose or coping front so the edge reads clearly, and a slight fall on each tread so water does not sit and freeze on it.
The dig and the muck away. Cutting into a bank makes a lot of spoil, and on a hillside plot it usually has to be barrowed uphill to the road. That is priced by the load and by the access, and it leaves with us. We are registered to carry waste.
Sub base and bedding. Geotextile membrane over cut subsoil, MOT Type 1 in compacted layers, then a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain and dense stone. On a terrace built into a slope the base has to be right, because there is nothing holding the paving in place except the edge restraint.
Porcelain, sandstone, limestone and granite. Porcelain absorbs almost nothing and a textured face keeps its grip on a route that involves steps. Sandstone is warmer and easier to cut. Limestone marks with iron. Granite is the hardest wearing. Calibrated slabs sawn to one thickness lay far quicker than hand cut stone.
Where the water goes. On a slope the runoff arrives from above as well as falling on the paving. A channel drain along the top of a terrace intercepts what comes down the bank, and it needs a gully or a soakaway that will take it, judged against Approved Document H. Paving still falls away from the house and finishes two courses below the damp course.
Jointing and repairs. Joints brushed in with a two part compound and tooled off. Existing terraces get the same attention: re-bedding slabs that have crept, rebuilding a step that has dropped, re-pointing open joints, and clearing algae and efflorescence.
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.
Broadstone is under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole for planning and has no conservation area of its own, so ordinary paving in a back garden is permitted development. Slopes are where that changes. A raised platform or decked terrace more than 300mm above the ground needs planning permission, a retaining wall of any size brings building control in once it is holding ground back near a building, and a wall on a boundary has its own height limits, which Planning Portal guidance on garden walls sets out. Where a wall is shared, the Party Wall etc. Act can apply too.
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 bungalow with a garden rising steeply behind it, a detached house with a drive down to a garage, and a terrace where the only access is a set of steps to the street are three different jobs before anything is dug. 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. Broadstone is about six miles from us, so we can normally look within a couple of days. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
What actually pushes a garden wall over
Almost every failed retaining wall we are called to on this ridge failed for the same reason, and it is not the weight of the soil. It is the water. Rain soaks into the bank behind the wall, cannot get out through the front, and the pressure builds until the wall leans, cracks along a course or bulges in the middle. Frost then works into the crack and finishes the job.
The fix is unglamorous and it is what a proper build includes as standard: a layer of clean stone up the back of the wall, a perforated land drain at the bottom running out to daylight or a gully, and weep holes through the face. None of it is visible when the job is done, which is precisely why it is the first thing left out of a cheap quote.
So on a sloping garden here, the question to ask anybody quoting is what is going behind the wall, not what is going on the terrace. A well drained retaining structure with modest paving on top will outlive an expensive porcelain terrace sitting on a wall that has nowhere to send its water.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Broadstone, Dunyeats, Corfe Hills and the Merley side, broadly BH18, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. 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
Broadstone questions we get asked
My garden slopes badly. One terrace or two?
It depends how much fall there is over the length you want to use. One long terrace on a steep plot means a tall retaining wall and a lot of cut. Two shallower levels with a few steps between them usually costs less to build and gets used more.
Why has my retaining wall started to lean?
Nine times out of ten it is water trapped behind it rather than the weight of the soil. Without a stone drainage layer and a land drain the pressure has nowhere to go and the wall moves. Rebuilding it without fixing that just delays the same result.
Do steps need a footing?
Every flight, yes. Steps bedded straight onto made ground drop at one end within a few winters, and an uneven rise is exactly where people trip. It is a small part of the cost and the first thing worth insisting on.
What happens to all the soil that comes out of the bank?
It goes out to a grab lorry or a skip and leaves with us. On a hillside plot where it has to be barrowed up to the road that takes longer, so it is priced by the load and by the access rather than being folded into a rate.
Can porcelain be used on the steps as well as the terrace?
Yes, and it is usually the right choice. Matching bullnose step units are made for it, and a textured finish holds its grip when a tread is wet, which matters far more on a step than it does in the middle of a patio.
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Get the slope measured before you plan a terrace
Thomas comes out, takes levels across the fall and prices the cut, the retaining, the drainage and the paving in writing. The visit and the quote are free.