Patios in Canford Heath
New patios in porcelain and stone for the back gardens of Canford Heath, BH17, including the ones you can only reach through the house.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Most back gardens in Canford Heath still have the patio that came with the house in the 1970s or 1980s: grey concrete slabs, often sunk and rocking. We lift them and lay porcelain, sandstone or granite on a full mortar bed over a proper base, with the fall away from the house. Front drives are on driveways in Canford Heath.
Canford Heath gardens tend to bring slabs that tip when you step on the corner and trap water after rain, small plots where the owner wants one level, usable space instead of a patio, a step and a patch of worn lawn, and the bare footprint of an old conservatory that a new owner has taken down.
Thomas comes out, measures the garden, checks the damp proof course and the air bricks, and works out how the materials will reach the back. You get a free written itemised quote.
Patio work
Lifting the old slabs and laying a proper base
The original patio comes up first. The old Canford Heath slabs were usually laid on dabs of mortar or on sand, which is why they rock. They come up, the ground is dug out to firm soil, a weed membrane goes down, and a sub-base of compacted MOT Type 1 is built up and wacker plated.
Porcelain. Now the most asked for. It does not stain or grow moss the way sandstone can, and it stays the same colour. Every slab is primed on the back with a slurry primer and laid on a full wet mortar bed, never on spots, because porcelain does not grip mortar on its own. Joints are filled with a brush-in or a cement grout.
Natural stone. Indian sandstone suits a garden that wants a softer look, and granite is harder wearing still. Both go on a full bed, and sandstone is sealed if you want it to keep its colour.
Falls and drainage. Every patio needs a gentle fall, around 1 in 60, running away from the house to the lawn, a border or a channel drain. The finished surface sits at least 150mm below the damp proof course, and air bricks are kept clear, not buried.
Steps, edges and small walls. A step down to the lawn, a low retaining wall where the garden slopes, or a raised bed built in brick to match the house. Edges are laid on a haunched mortar bed so they do not creep.
Where a conservatory came down. The old base is often usable. We check it is level and sound, then lay over it or break it out, and make sure the damp proof course on the house wall is now clear of the new surface.
When we would say keep it. If the slabs are sound and only a few have sunk, lifting and rebedding those is a day or less, and a clean may be all the rest needs.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
One person to ring from the first visit to the last. 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.
No Canford Heath garden is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day instead of 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.
A patio at ground level in a back garden rarely needs planning permission for a house, and a permeable surface or a fall onto your own lawn keeps the runoff on your land. Raised decks and platforms over 30cm are different. Canford Heath has no conservation area, so an ordinary back garden here needs no heritage consent.
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 detached house with a side gate a barrow fits through, a semi with a narrow path down the side, and a terraced house where everything has to be carried from a parking court each alter the plan before the first 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. A raised bed or a step up from the parking court still falls under the work at height rules while the ground is open.
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 for a Canford Heath patio? 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.
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. If a sunken patio is sending rain back against the house wall, sweep the water away and keep the air bricks clear until we have looked, because that is where damp starts. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For anything urgent, ring rather than use the form, and if we cannot pick up we ring you back as soon as we can.
The one local thing
Getting a patio into a terraced garden
Many terraced houses in Canford Heath have no side access. Some face a road, some face a footpath, and their back gardens often open onto a rear path or a garage court rather than a street. Every slab, every bag of cement and every tonne of sub-base has to get into the garden somehow, and every barrow of old concrete and spoil has to come out again.
Where a Canford Heath house has a back gate onto a path, that is how it goes, and we check the gate width and any bollards or tight corners on the way before we price. Where there is not, it comes through the house, with the floors covered with boards and sheeting from the front door to the back. Either way it takes time, and the quote says so rather than hiding it. It is also a reason to lay porcelain in the size that fits through the hallway rather than the largest slab available, and to plan the skip or grab lorry for wherever it can stand legally, which on a footpath frontage is usually the nearest parking court.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We lay patios across Canford Heath and the rest of BH17, from Gravel Hill to Mannings Heath and from Adastral Square to Culliford Crescent, from our base in Boscombe, about six miles away. BCP Council is the planning 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. Before you book a visit in Canford Heath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Canford Heath?
Most repairs in Canford Heath 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 Canford Heath |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Canford Heath. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Canford Heath, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Nothing in Canford Heath is on the statutory list, so listed building consent does not come into it. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Canford Heath. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Canford Heath
Can you lay a patio if my garden has no side access?
Yes. Materials come along a back path if there is one, or through the house with the floors protected. The extra labour is shown on the quote.
Why do my old slabs rock?
They were usually laid on spots of mortar or on sand. Over the years the ground settles under them. A full mortar bed on a compacted base stops it.
Is porcelain slippery when it rains?
Outdoor porcelain has a textured, slip rated surface. It is no more slippery than stone, and it does not grow the moss that makes old slabs dangerous.
How long does a new patio take?
A typical back garden is a few days to a week, depending on access, the size and whether steps or walls are involved.
Nearby, and next door
Patios near Canford Heath
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Plan a new patio in Canford Heath
Thomas measures the garden, works out the access and puts an itemised price in writing. The visit and the quote are free.