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.
Almost every patio in this village 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.
Three things bring people to the phone. A step that has dropped and now catches a toe. Paving that has slipped downhill so the joints have opened along one line. And a garden being reworked where the old terrace is too small and sits at the wrong height for the back door.
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
Cutting 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 here 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 here, 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 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
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 normally needs no planning application and no building control notice. The village is a conservation area, and that changes things you can see: a raised terrace, new steps at the front, a change of surface at the frontage, or taking down a wall or railings. With well over a hundred listed entries in the parish, a terrace built against the house itself can also need listed building consent from Dorset Council. We would rather find that out at the survey than halfway through.
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 street with no rear access, a house with a track to the back, 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. It is under ten miles across the heath from us, so a village address is usually 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
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 here, 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 rather than 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
A local firm you can check
We cover the village, the lanes out to Church Knowle, Kingston and Norden and the plots along East Street, broadly BH20, under Dorset Council. 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
Corfe Castle questions we get asked
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 rather than 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 rather than 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.
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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.