Patios and terraces in Corfe Castle
Gardens here run up and down rather than flat, so most patios in the village are really a small terrace with steps, an edge and somewhere for the water to go.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Almost every patio in Corfe Castle involves a change of level. That turns it from a paving job into a small piece of groundwork, and the retaining edge, the steps and the drainage behind them are where the money and the skill actually sit.
Trouble on a Corfe Castle patio looks like a step that has dropped and now catches a toe, paving that has slipped downhill so the joints have opened along one line, or a garden being reworked where the old terrace is too small and sits at the wrong height for the back door.
In Corfe Castle each of those is answered the same way, by finding out what is holding the ground up. We dig a trial hole at the edge, look at what is under the paving, and take levels off the damp proof course and off the threshold. The work then goes into one written itemised quote, with the excavation, the muck away, the sub base, the edgings and steps, the paving and the jointing listed separately. The visit and the quote are free.
On the ground
Terracing a sloping village garden
The terrace is cut into the slope. A level terrace on falling ground means cutting into the bank at one end and building out at the other. We excavate to firm ground rather than to a convenient depth, and the spoil goes off site by skip or grab lorry, priced by the load. On the lanes in Corfe Castle that often means barrowing to the road, which is a real cost and belongs on the quote.
Retaining and edges. Whatever holds the cut back is the important part of the job. A retaining course or a low wall with a coping, built on a footing, with a drainage layer and weep holes behind it so water is not left pressing on the back. Kerbs are haunched, and the outer edge is restrained rather than left to spread.
Steps. A consistent rise and a generous going, with the nosing bedded solid rather than overhanging on mortar. Steps are where a garden either feels safe in the dark or does not, and they are the first thing to move if the base under them was thin.
Base and bedding. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, in layers, then a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer under each slab. Not dabs, and not a screeded sand bed. A void under a slab on a slope is where water collects and where the frost starts lifting.
What goes down. Local stone still reads best against the walls and cottages in Corfe Castle, and it comes riven and uncalibrated, so each flag is bedded to its own thickness. Sandstone and limestone are the usual imports, granite for something harder, travertine rarely. Porcelain suits a modern garden and stays cleanest, cut wet and primed on the back.
Levels against the house. The finished paving falls away from the wall and stops at least two courses below the DPC. On the older Corfe Castle cottages the damp course is low or missing, and there the answer is an open gravel margin along the wall rather than stone tight against it.
Water and jointing. A channel drain across the bottom of a fall into a gully or soakaway so runoff stays on your own land, a permeable border where the ground will take it, and joints brushed in with a two part compound, or hand pointed in a softer mix on weathered stone.
Repairs. Rocking and sunk flags, a cracked riser, lichen and algae on a north facing terrace, efflorescence and iron staining on newer stone.
How it runs
Building a patio behind a cottage with no rear access
Thomas comes to see the garden and prices the patio himself. Many cottages in Corfe Castle have no side way, so paving, sand and the old concrete all come and go through the house or over a wall. His quote splits out the digging and spoil removal, the sub-base, the falls and the drainage, edgings and steps, the slabs and the jointing. Thomas is your contact from the first spadeful to the final brush.
If the house is the only route into a Corfe Castle garden, floors and hall get sheeted and everything travels in bags. The garden is tidied each evening and no hole is left open for someone to step into after dark. Spoil leaves with us. Should the dig turn up an old drain, a buried wall or roots, you are shown it, with a photo and a figure, before any more digging.
A patio laid at ground level in a back garden needs neither a planning application nor a building control notice. A raised terrace, new front steps or removing a wall or railings is another matter, and the village is in the Corfe Castle Conservation Area, so check with Dorset Council first. Listed buildings are thick on the ground in this parish, and a terrace built against a listed house can need listed building consent. We would rather find that out at the survey than halfway through.
Cost
Carrying every slab through: what sets a patio price
We don't quote patios by the square metre. The stone you choose is usually the smallest part of the bill.
Getting materials in. A cottage on the street with no rear access, a house with a track round to the back and a bungalow with double gates on the edge of Corfe Castle are very different jobs before any stone is picked. Barrowing straight to the spot is quick; carrying every slab through a hallway is not, and the work at height rules still apply to the dig and any machine.
Clearing the ground. Old concrete, a raised bed, roots or rubble fill are broken out and carted off, charged by the load. Where a garden rises behind a cottage, cutting into the slope means holding the bank back.
Levels against the house. The finished surface must slope away from the walls and sit two courses below the damp proof course. Many old stone cottages have no damp course at all, which makes the level at the wall more important still, and often means a step down, a retaining edge or a channel drain.
Put these to any other Corfe Castle quote: how deep is the dig and what sub-base goes in, are the slabs on a full wet bed or on dabs, are edgings included, where does the rainwater go, and which jointing compound finishes it?
If it has become a hazard
A rocking slab, a dropped step or a slippery patio
Phone us instead of filling in the form. A slab that rocks underfoot or a step that has sunk will trip somebody, and a patio shaded by a stone wall grows slippery algae through the winter.
At the first visit to a Corfe Castle patio the worst slabs are lifted and re-bedded and the slippery patch cleaned, and then we check whether the base under the rest has given way. Until then, stand a pot or a board on the loose slab. Planned patio work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If there is no answer, we will call you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
What the conservation area actually controls
People assume a conservation area means every spade needs permission. It does not. Laying or replacing a patio in a back garden at ground level is ordinary permitted development and nobody needs to be asked. What is controlled is the appearance of what can be seen, and in a village of this shape a surprising amount can be seen.
The parts that catch people out are the boundary and the levels. Taking down a front wall, a set of railings or a pier to widen an opening is not automatically something you may just do in Corfe Castle, and neither is felling or lopping a tree, which needs written notice to the council before anyone touches it. A raised terrace or a substantial retaining wall is a different animal from a patio too, because it changes the profile of the plot. If any of that is in the plan, ask first.
What it changes for us is the specification, not the schedule. We keep an existing wall where it can be kept and rebuild an opening with proper piers, we choose a stone that sits with what is already in the street rather than the brightest range in a brochure, and we keep the paving away from the base of an old wall so it can still breathe. None of that makes the build slower. It makes the start slower, which is why the paperwork goes in first.
Who you are dealing with
Your patio, measured and priced by Thomas in person
We cover the village, the lanes out to Church Knowle, Kingston and Norden, and the houses along East Street, about eleven and a half miles from Boscombe. Dorset Council is the authority for all of it.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719 and belongs to Thomas Hannen, who comes out, measures up and writes the price himself. On Checkatrade a verified customer gave the firm 10 out of 10. There is no charge for the visit, or for the written quote itemised line by line. Where a cottage has space to park, a driveway in Corfe Castle is a separate conversation because the frontage is on show. Before you book a visit in Corfe Castle, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Corfe Castle?
Most repairs in Corfe Castle 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 Corfe Castle |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Corfe Castle. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Corfe Castle Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Corfe Castle. 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 Corfe Castle
Do I need permission for a patio in a conservation area village?
Not for paving a back garden at ground level. Consent comes into it where the work is visible or structural: a raised terrace, altering a front wall, or a substantial retaining wall. Dorset Council decide, and it is a question worth asking before ordering.
How much does terracing a sloping garden add?
It is the retaining and the steps, not the paving, that add the work. A level terrace on a slope needs a footing, a wall, drainage behind it and a set of steps, so it is priced as groundwork with paving on top, not as a square of slabs.
Should I use local stone or porcelain?
Local stone looks right against old walls and weathers into the garden, but it is uncalibrated and slower to lay. Porcelain stays cleanest and has a published slip rating. We would put stone at the front of a period cottage and porcelain behind a modern extension without hesitating.
The paving runs right up to my cottage wall. Is that a problem?
It can be. On a building with a low or absent damp course, paving tight to the wall bridges it and the damp comes inside. An open gravel margin along the base, with the fall taken away from the house, is the usual fix.
Can you work where there is no vehicle access to the back?
Yes. It is normal here. The machine is a micro digger that fits a standard gate, and where there is no gate at all everything goes through on boards and sheeting or out to the road by barrow. It adds hours, so it goes on the quote as its own line.
Nearby, and next door
Patios near Corfe Castle
Nearby places we also cover for patios, with straight-line distances from Corfe Castle, and the other trades we offer in Corfe Castle itself.
Patios nearby
Our other trades in Corfe Castle
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Free quote
Get the levels and the retaining priced properly
Thomas comes out, digs a trial hole, works out what is holding the ground and prices the terrace, the steps and the drainage in writing. Both are free.