Patios in Cranborne, paving that suits the village

Choosing a material that belongs. Riven sandstone, a limestone flag or a reclaimed style paver reads better against old brick and flint than a large format grey porcelain does. On a frontage seen from the street that matters. Behind the house you can please yourself.

Porcelain where it works. Calibrated to a single thickness, almost no absorption, slip rated finishes, and it stays clean under trees. In a walled back garden it is often the sensible choice. It needs a slurry primer on the back of each slab or the mortar bed will not hold it.

Granite, limestone and travertine. Granite setts make a good threshold band and a hard wearing step tread. Limestone gives a flat even surface. Travertine is softer and marks. None is calibrated like porcelain, so each slab is bedded to its own thickness.

The dig. Old concrete, a cobbled yard, brick rubble and roots all come out. Around older buildings we excavate by hand close to the walls rather than run machinery along a footing nobody has seen. Spoil leaves in a grab lorry or a skip.

The sub base. MOT type 1 compacted in layers, or a lighter hardcore build up where the area is small and the loading is only foot traffic. Where the ground is soft a geotextile keeps the subgrade out of the stone.

Full bed, never dabs. Every flag beds on a full wet mortar bed, not on five dabs and not on a sand screed. It is the difference between a surface that stays flat and one that starts rocking within two winters.

Levels against an old wall. The paving falls away from the building and finishes low against it. On a house with a damp proof course we work two courses below it. On an older wall without one we drop the surface and put a drainage channel or a gravel margin along the base instead.

Where the water goes. An ACO channel to a gully, a permeable jointed build up over a stone reservoir, or a soakaway at the low end of the garden. Runoff off a new surface has to be dealt with on your own ground.

Edges, steps and retaining. Haunched edging or a kerb to hold the outer course, a retaining edge with a coping where a bank or a border sits above the paving, and steps with an overhang on the tread so water drips clear.

Jointing and repairs. Resin grout brushed in while the joints are damp on calibrated paving, or lime rich pointing where the work sits against old fabric. We also relay sunk and lifted flags, cut out cracked ones, and deal with staining, efflorescence and a slippery green surface under trees.

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 fronting the street with no side access, a farmhouse with a yard a lorry can reach and a modern house with a wide gate are three different jobs on the same area of paving. 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.

The village sits in its own conservation area, inside the wider Cranborne Chase landscape, with twenty five listed entries around it. None of that stops you building a patio. It changes three things, and they are worth knowing before you plan anything.

The first is the frontage. Appearance is controlled where work can be seen, so relaying a front path in the same materials is maintenance, while changing its colour or pattern is a question for the council. The second is the boundary: taking down part of a wall to widen an opening is not automatically something you can just do. The third is trees, protected inside a conservation area, so a root in the way of a terrace means a notice rather than a chainsaw.

That shifts the timetable rather than the build. We look the address up, put photographs and a note of the materials in with the quote where consent is likely, and start the paperwork before the dig is booked.

We cover the village, Alderholt, Sixpenny Handley and the lanes across the chase, 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.