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.
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.
Three complaints bring people to the phone. Slabs lifted into a ridge where a root has swelled underneath. A shaded terrace that has gone green and slick. And an old paved area being replaced because the garden has been reworked and it now sits in the wrong place entirely.
All three start with what is under the ground rather than 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 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 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
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 normally permitted development, with no planning application and no building control notice. The village is a conservation area though, and two things follow. Anything visible and structural, a raised terrace, new steps at the frontage or altering a boundary wall, is looked at differently. And trees are protected: written notice has to go to the authority before one is felled or cut back. The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority here, and its heritage and conservation pages set out how both work.
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 cottage on the green with no vehicle access, a house behind a long gravel drive and a bungalow with double gates are three different jobs before a stone is chosen. 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. We are eleven miles away across the forest, so a call from the village 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
You cannot just take the tree out
It is the conversation we have most often here. 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 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 local firm you can check
We cover the village, Burley Street, Bisterne Close and out towards Ringwood and Bransgore, broadly BH24, 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.
Questions
Burley questions we get asked
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 rather than 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.