Patios in Corfe Mullen

Reading the ground before anything is ordered. We stand at the back door with a level and look uphill, and chalk the DPC on the brickwork before anything else. If the lawn finishes higher than the threshold, this is a drainage job with paving on top. It settles the dig depth, the fall, the edging and whether a channel is needed.

Digging down instead of building up. The tempting fix is to add height to get the paving flat. It is the wrong way round: it pushes the finished level towards the damp proof course and traps water against the wall. We excavate instead, take the spoil away and set the paving two courses below the damp course with a fall running off it.

What comes out. Old concrete flags on a bed of sand, sometimes a slab left by a shed that went years ago, and on the estate plots made ground from the build. It is dug to formation and barrowed out through the side gate, priced by the load.

The base. Geotextile membrane, then MOT Type 1 hardcore compacted in layers, a sharp sand screed to level it, and a full bed of mortar under each slab with a slurry primer on the back, not five dabs. A proper mortar bed does not go hollow. Dabs are quicker and they are why a slab starts rocking, sounds hollow underfoot and ends up cracked across the middle.

Choosing the slab. Porcelain is calibrated to a consistent thickness and stays clean in a shaded corner. Indian sandstone is hand cut and warmer to look at. Limestone and granite are harder wearing and darker, and travertine holds water. We bring samples out and lay them down wet, because a dry sample in a showroom tells you little.

Edges, steps and the lawn. Where the garden sits above the patio the back edge has to be retained rather than simply butted against soil, or the border ends up on your paving every time it rains. That means a low retaining wall or a haunched kerb with a coping, steps up onto the grass at a rise you can walk in the dark, and a gravel border along the wall to take splashback.

Water, and where it is allowed to go. The fall runs away from the house into an ACO channel across the back of the patio, an existing gully, or a soakaway clear of the foundations. Where the runoff has nowhere to go we build permeable, which is a different sub base rather than a different slab.

Jointing, and the patio you already have. Joints are filled with a brush in resin compound, a grout slurry or pointed by hand in mortar, never loose sand. If your paving has only sunk or lifted in one bay we say so and quote the lift and relay rather than the rebuild. Algae, efflorescence and staining after a wet winter are usually a clean and a re-joint.

No rate per square metre, because the slabs are the part you choose and the smallest part of the price.

Getting to it. A bungalow with a wide side path, a 1970s semi where the only access is a narrow gate, and a detached house you can get a mini digger and a skip onto are three different prices for the same square metres. 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.

We cover Corfe Mullen, Lockyers, Blandford Road, Wareham Road and out to Henbury, broadly BH21, 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.