Patios in Bryanston, working around mature trees
Parkland trees mean roots in the top of the soil, and a patio dug the standard way goes straight through them.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Gardens in Bryanston tend to come with mature trees in them or right next door, and that is the first thing we look at rather than the last. Where a patio is going in under a big beech or a lime, the roots decide the dig, the build up and sometimes the shape of the terrace.
The usual problems under Bryanston trees. Paving that has been pushed up into a ridge by a root running under it. A terrace green and slippery all winter under a canopy. And a bare lawn where somebody wants a proper sitting out area and has been told they cannot dig near the tree.
We come out to Bryanston, look at what is growing near the proposed patio, dig a trial hole away from the root plate and take levels off the house. Then you get a written itemised quote with the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the edgings, the slabs, the drainage and the jointing on separate lines. The site visit and the quote are free.
The jobs
Laying a terrace where there are roots in the ground
Finding out what is under there. Before a Bryanston patio is priced we open a trial hole. Old concrete, a buried path, made ground and roots all change the job, and finding them on the first morning of the dig is the expensive way. Spoil is excavated and taken away by the load.
Digging near a tree. A mature tree feeds through fine roots in the top of the soil, spread wider than the branches suggest. Cutting through them for a full depth excavation can kill the tree slowly and destabilise it quickly. So near a big tree in Bryanston we dig by hand, keep the depth shallow and bridge over anything structural.
The sub base. Away from roots it is MOT Type 1 compacted in thin lifts and carried past the edge of the paving. Over a root zone the answer is a shallower build up on a geotextile separator, sometimes a no dig construction that sits on the existing ground rather than in it, so the terrace floats over the roots.
Full bed, never dabs. Every slab is laid on a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back. Dabs leave voids under the stone, the voids fill and freeze, and over a root zone where the ground moves anyway a dabbed slab starts rocking almost immediately.
Stone and porcelain. Porcelain is calibrated to a constant thickness, takes up no water and does not stain, and the textured grades keep their grip under a Bryanston canopy. Sandstone is riven and warm and needs bedding slab by slab. Limestone is softer in colour and marks, granite is the hardest wearing, and travertine belongs somewhere open and sunny.
Falls, levels and the house. The terrace falls away from the building and finishes at least two courses below the DPC, and where a threshold is too low we dig down rather than build up. Approved Document C explains what bridging a damp course does to a wall.
Edges, steps and drainage. A haunched edging or kerb where paving meets lawn, a retaining edge and coping where a level is held back, and steps with equal risers. Water goes to a channel and a gully with an outfall, or to a soakaway well clear of house and tree, and a permeable build up over open graded stone keeps runoff on your ground.
Jointing and repairs. A brush in compound worked wet and tooled off, or hand pointing on an older stone terrace. The repair list in Bryanston is short and predictable: slabs lifted by a root, a bay sunk where fill has settled, cracked stone, algae on the shaded half, efflorescence on new sandstone and staining under the drip line.
How it runs
Building a patio round the trees and walls you already have
Thomas looks at the spot in your Bryanston garden, checks where the damp proof course sits and which way the garden falls, and prices it himself. The quote is split into the dig, the spoil taken away, the compacted base, how the falls and drainage are handled, edgings and any steps, the slabs, and what the joints are filled with. Each of those lines is priced before any work starts.
Everything for a Bryanston patio goes in and out through the garden. A side gate means barrows; if the only route is through the house, we sheet floors and protect door frames. On the lane, a skip or grab lorry needs a firm place to stand, which we agree beforehand. Open ground is fenced or covered overnight, paths are brushed, and spoil goes with us. Hitting an old concrete base, a drain run or a big root means a photo and a price in your hands before the job changes.
Paving at ground level in a back garden is usually permitted development with no need for planning permission; building control only gets involved where a retaining wall is part of it. The trees are what to check. In a conservation area the council needs written notice before a tree is cut back or felled, so ask Dorset Council whether your garden is covered. If the house is listed, look at listed building consent first.
Cost
Where the money in a patio actually goes
Patios are not priced by the square metre. The slabs you pick out are rarely where most of the money goes.
Digging out. Old concrete, a raised bed, roots or made ground all have to be broken up and carried off, and that goes by the load. How much comes out decides most of the hours.
What it sits on. A compacted sub-base at the right depth, then each slab on a full mortar bed rather than dabs, stops rocking and sinking later. Near the big Bryanston parkland trees the roots limit where and how deep we can dig.
The levels. Rain must run away from the house, and the finished surface must stay well under the damp proof course. That can call for a step, a low retaining edge or a channel drain, each on its own line.
Carrying. Every slab barrowed down a narrow side path, or carried through the house, adds time compared with a garden a small digger can reach. The work at height rules still govern any machinery and raised edges.
From any other quote, find out the dig depth and sub-base, full bed or dabs, and which jointing compound.
If it has become a hazard
A slab that has lifted or a step that has dropped
A slab lifted at one corner, a step that rocks, or a shaded Bryanston patio that has gone green and slippery in winter can put someone on the ground. Keep people off it and give us a ring; the form is slower for this.
Patio repairs are booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and an unanswered phone just means we are on a job; we will call you back when we are off the tools. We lift and relay or mark off the worst of it, then check whether the base under the rest has gone. If a tree root has pushed a slab up, photograph it before anyone knocks it down.
Worth knowing
Patios, mature trees and the roots you cannot see
The parkland planting around Bryanston means a lot of gardens here sit within reach of a big tree, and the roots that matter are not the thick ones you can see at the base. The feeding roots run in the top of the soil and spread well past the edge of the canopy, and a standard patio excavation goes straight through them.
That matters twice over. Cut enough of them and a tree can decline over several seasons or come down in a gale. And a tree left alive keeps growing, so paving laid tight on live roots gets lifted into ridges within a few years. Neither is obvious when you are standing on a lawn.
So near a tree we change the construction rather than the tree. The dig is done by hand and kept shallow, roots over a certain size are bridged rather than cut, the build up sits on a geotextile separator, and the terrace is sometimes pulled a few feet away from the trunk where that costs nothing but a slightly different shape. If the tree is protected, and in a conservation area that is a real possibility, we say so before anything is booked.
Who you are dealing with
Patios near Blandford, priced by the owner
We lay patios in Bryanston, Blandford St Mary, Blandford Forum and the Stour valley villages around them, broadly DT11. From our base in Boscombe to Bryanston is 17.3 miles, and Dorset Council is the council for all of it.
You will be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Patios are measured and priced by the owner, Thomas Hannen, in person. There is a verified 10 out of 10 from a customer on Checkatrade. The visit and the written itemised quote cost nothing. Where a tree stands near the gate, a driveway in Bryanston faces the same root question as the terrace. Before you book a visit in Bryanston, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Bryanston?
Most repairs in Bryanston 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.
| Question | In Bryanston |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Bryanston. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Blandford St Mary and Bryanston Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Bryanston. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Dorset National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Bryanston
Can a patio be laid over tree roots without harming the tree?
Often yes, if the construction changes. We hand dig, keep the excavation shallow, bridge over the roots that matter instead of cutting them and build up on a separator. What we will not do is take a machine through a root plate to gain a couple of inches of depth.
Why has my paving lifted into a ridge across the middle?
A root growing under it: the slab has nowhere to go but up. Re-laying the top buys a couple of seasons at most, so we lift the affected area, look at the root and decide whether to bridge it or move the line of the terrace.
Do I need permission before cutting a tree back to make room?
In a conservation area you must give the council written notice before cutting or lopping, and some trees are protected outright. It is a quick thing to check and an expensive thing to get wrong, so ask before anybody starts on it.
Will a terrace under a canopy always go green?
It will grow algae faster than an open one, because it stays damp and collects leaf litter. Textured porcelain sheds it better than a porous stone, filled joints give it nowhere to root, and a wash off once a year keeps on top of it.
Is a no dig patio as solid as a normal one?
For foot traffic, yes, when it is built properly on a compacted layer over a separator. We would only use it where a full depth dig would cost you the tree. Everywhere else the ordinary build up is better.
Nearby, and next door
Patios near Bryanston
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Find out whether you can dig where you want the terrace
Thomas comes out, looks at what is growing near it, opens a trial hole and prices the work in writing. The visit and the quote are free.