Patios in Christchurch, on ground with no fall

Setting the falls. A patio wants a steady fall away from the house, and on ground as level as Christchurch it has to be cut into the sub base rather than hoped for. On a garden that runs the wrong way we drop the far edge, put a linear channel along the low side and take the runoff to a gully or a soakaway well clear of the footings.

The damp proof course. Approved Document C expects finished ground to sit two brick courses, roughly 150mm, below the damp course. A good many terraces in the older parts of Christchurch have been re-laid over the top of the last one and are now above it. Where the threshold is low, the answer is a recessed channel drain across the door, not another lift of build up.

The dig and the muck away. Out comes the old bedding sand, the broken concrete, the roots and any made ground, down to a formation we can compact. That spoil is priced by the load, it goes into a grab lorry or a skip, and it leaves with us.

Sub base and bedding. Geotextile membrane where the ground is soft, then MOT Type 1 in compacted layers. Slabs go on a full wet mortar bed, with a slurry primer painted onto the back of porcelain and dense stone. Five dabs and a prayer is how a Christchurch patio ends up rocking, and it is still the commonest fault under a failed one.

Porcelain, sandstone, limestone and granite. Porcelain is dense, barely takes water and stays cleanest on a shaded terrace. Sandstone is warm and easy to work but porous. Limestone is quieter and marks with iron. Granite is the toughest and the least likely to move. Calibrated slabs are sawn to one thickness and lay quickly; hand cut stone varies, so the bed does the levelling.

Steps, edges and retaining. A step down to a lawn goes off a footing with a coping or bullnose front. Anything holding soil back gets a haunched retaining course and a land drain behind it, because water trapped behind an edging is what pushes it out of line.

Jointing and finishing. Joints are brushed in with a two part compound in damp conditions and tooled off. A sand and cement grout in the wrong weather hazes the stone and lifts out in strips by spring.

Putting an existing terrace right. Re-bedding a sunken bay, cutting out cracked slabs, re-pointing washed out joints, and clearing algae and efflorescence off paving that is otherwise sound.

A Christchurch patio is priced on the digging, the levels and the carrying. The slabs you choose are usually the smallest share.

Getting materials in. Behind a Victorian terrace in the old town, each slab comes in and each bag of spoil goes out through a passage or the house. A post-war semi off Barrack Road usually has a side gate, and a bungalow in Somerford may have a driveway right up to it. The fewer times each slab is carried, the lower the labour.

Breaking out. Old slabs, a raised bed, roots or buried rubble are broken up and removed, and that is charged per load rather than per square metre. On Christchurch clay that holds water, a properly compacted sub-base is what keeps new slabs from rocking later.

Levels at the back door. The new surface has to finish a good two brick courses below the damp proof course and fall away from the wall. In a small terrace yard that often calls for a step down, a low retaining kerb, or a channel drain carrying water to the gully.

How it is laid. Bedding every slab on a full wet bed costs more than dotting mortar dabs under the corners, and it is the version that lasts. Jointing compound matters as well: in a damp, shaded Christchurch yard the wrong one sprouts weeds and algae.

Before you choose, ask the other firm about the depth of dig, whether slabs are bedded fully or spot-bedded on dabs, and where rainwater will drain.

We cover Christchurch town, Purewell, Stanpit, Somerford and out to Mudeford, broadly BH23, and our base in Boscombe is 2.7 miles away. Planning and listed building consent sit with Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council. You would be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Christchurch, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The firm belongs to Thomas Hannen, who looks at the garden with you and puts the price together himself. One verified Checkatrade customer has scored us 10 out of 10. Neither the site visit nor the itemised written quote costs anything.

Most repairs in Christchurch 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.