Patios in Burley
Most gardens in the village have a mature tree in or near them, and roots decide where a patio can go and how deep anybody is allowed to dig.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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In Burley the tree usually comes before the terrace. Roots set where the paving can sit and how the base is built, and in a conservation area you cannot simply cut a tree down to make room for a patio, so the design has to work around what is there.
Roots swell under Burley paving and lift the slabs into a ridge, shaded terraces go green and slick, and a reworked garden can leave the old paved area sitting in the wrong place entirely.
In Burley all three start with what is under the ground, not on it. We dig a trial hole at the edge, see what roots are running through, and take a level off the damp proof course. Then the work goes into one written itemised quote with the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the edgings, the paving and the jointing on their own lines. The site visit and the quote are both free.
The work
Paving among trees, and keeping it flat
Digging where roots run. Near a mature Burley tree the excavation is done carefully and often by hand, because severing a major root can cost you the tree and, on a big one near a building, more than that. We take out turf, old paving and soft made ground to a firm formation and the spoil goes by skip or grab lorry, priced by the load.
Building over roots rather than through them. Where roots cannot be cut, the answer is to build up over a geotextile with a thinner but properly compacted sub base, or to move the terrace a few feet. It is a design conversation, not something to discover with a breaker in your hands.
Base and bedding. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, in layers, then a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of every slab. Not five dabs, and not a screeded sand bed. Under trees the ground shrinks and swells more than open lawn does, so a continuous bed matters even more than usual.
Materials. Riven sandstone suits a Burley forest garden and hides leaf staining better than a pale limestone. Granite is the hardest wearing, travertine the least suited to somewhere shaded and damp. Porcelain absorbs nothing, sheds tannin from leaves and carries a published slip rating, which is worth having under a canopy.
Falls, thresholds and the damp proof course. Paving falls away from the house and finishes at least two courses below the DPC. Where a door sits low, a threshold drain along the wall does the work instead of the level being raised to meet the frame.
Edges, steps and retaining. A haunched kerb or a retaining course with a coping to hold the outer row, drainage and weep holes behind anything holding ground back, and steps of a consistent rise. A generous permeable border between paving and a tree keeps water and air getting to the roots.
Drainage and jointing. A channel drain into a gully or a soakaway so the runoff stays on your land, and joints brushed and worked in with a two part compound rather than sand or a bagged grout, which matters under trees because open joints fill with leaf litter and seed every autumn.
Repairs. Lifted, rocking and sunk slabs, a cracked step, moss and algae on a shaded terrace, efflorescence and iron staining on new stone.
How it runs
Laying a patio in a forest garden
Thomas looks at where your Burley patio will go, finds the damp proof course, checks the fall of the garden and which trees are close, and prices it. The quote breaks out digging and carting away, the compacted stone base, the falls and drainage, edgings and any steps, the stone itself and what fills the joints.
Materials come in through a side gate or over boards laid on the lawn; if the house is the only way, we sheet the floors. Near an oak in Burley, roots are dug round by hand and the build-up kept shallow where it has to be. On clay the falls send rain to a drain or channel, never towards the house. The dig is covered at night, paths are swept and all spoil is removed. Should we meet an old slab or a drain run, the photo and the added cost reach you before the plan changes.
Paving a garden at ground level is normally permitted development, with no planning application and nothing for building control. Trees are the thing to watch. Inside a conservation area the authority must have written notice before a tree is felled or cut back, and the planning authority here is the Park Authority. Its heritage and conservation pages explain how that works, and how raised terraces and new front steps are treated.
Cost
What goes under the slabs, and why it costs more than they do
A Burley patio has no rate per square metre. The slabs you choose are usually the smaller part of the price. Getting materials in. A cottage on the green with no vehicle access, a house behind a long gravel drive and a bungalow with double gates are different jobs. Every slab carried by hand adds time. The work at height rules still apply to raised edges and machinery.
The dig. Old concrete, raised beds, roots and made ground have to come out and be taken away by the load. That is where a patio quote is won or lost.
The ground. On shrinkable clay the sub-base needs to be deeper and the water needs a proper route, a channel, or a soakaway where one will actually work.
Levels. The patio must fall away from the house and sit below the damp proof course. That can mean steps or a retaining edge, each priced separately.
The stone. Natural stone varies in thickness and has to be sorted and bedded one slab at a time, which is slower than porcelain of a single depth.
Get each quote to name the dig depth and sub-base, say whether slabs go on a full wet bed or on dabs, and state the jointing compound.
If it has become a hazard
A patio gone green and slippery, or a step that rocks
Under trees a Burley patio can stay damp all winter and turn slippery with algae, and a lifted slab or rocking step is a trip. Keep people off the worst of it and phone us instead of filling in the form.
We book patio work Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and if a call goes unanswered, we ring you back once we can. We relay or mark the worst slabs, look at whether the bedding under the rest has failed, and treat or clean a slippery surface. If a root has lifted a slab, photograph it before anyone knocks it back.
Worth knowing
You cannot just take the tree out
The tree is the conversation that matters most in a Burley garden. Somebody wants a bigger terrace, or more light on the one they have, and the obvious answer is the oak. In a conservation area that is not a decision a householder can simply take.
Written notice has to go to the authority before a tree is felled or lopped, and there is a waiting period during which the authority can decide to protect it properly. Cutting first is an offence rather than a formality.
So in Burley the design goes the other way round. We find the trunk, work out roughly where the root plate runs, and put the terrace where it can be built without cutting anything significant. Where paving has to be near a tree we build up over a membrane rather than digging down, keep a generous permeable margin around the base so water and air still reach the roots, and leave the surface a little proud so that future root growth lifts a joint rather than cracking a slab.
The upside is worth saying. A shaded terrace under a mature tree is the most pleasant place in a Burley garden for most of the summer, and it only needs the right surface. Something with a published slip rating, a jointing compound the leaf litter cannot get into, and a clean down each autumn will keep it usable and safe without anybody reaching for a chainsaw.
Who you are dealing with
A patio firm for Burley Street and Bisterne Close
We lay patios in the village, Burley Street and Bisterne Close, and out towards Ringwood and Bransgore, broadly BH24. Burley is an 8.8 mile run from our base in Boscombe, under the New Forest National Park Authority for planning.
The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. You will meet the owner, Thomas Hannen, who comes to your garden to measure and price the patio. A verified customer on Checkatrade rated the work 10 out of 10. The visit is free, and the written quote lists every item at no charge. Trees at the front are protected in the same way, so a driveway in Burley is designed around them as well. Before you book a visit in Burley, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Burley?
Most repairs in Burley 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 Burley |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority for Burley. New Forest National Park Authority's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Burley Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Burley. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the New Forest National Park, where design is looked at more closely and permitted development rights are narrower. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Burley
Can I have a tree taken down to make room for a patio?
Not without telling the authority first. In a conservation area written notice is required before felling or cutting back, and the authority can step in to protect the tree. In practice it is usually quicker and cheaper to design the terrace around it.
Roots have lifted my paving. Can it be relaid?
Often yes. The slabs come up, the high spots are dealt with without severing anything major, and the area is rebuilt over a membrane. If the root is still growing it will move again eventually, so we would set it out to fail at a joint, not through a slab.
What surface copes best under trees?
Porcelain, or a riven sandstone: both shed leaf tannin better than a pale limestone, and porcelain in particular will not take up the staining. A published slip rating matters under a canopy that keeps the surface damp.
Is a shaded terrace always going to be slippery?
It will always want more attention than an open one, but it does not have to be dangerous. A textured surface, a jointing compound that keeps organic matter out of the joints and a wash down each autumn deal with most of it.
Does the National Park make a patio harder to get approved?
Not for ordinary paving at ground level, which is permitted development. It matters for raised terraces, walls and anything visible from a lane, and the authority's own property map is the quickest way to see what applies at your address.
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Design the terrace around the tree, not through it
Thomas looks at the roots, the levels and where the sun actually falls, then prices the work in writing. The visit and the quote are both free.