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 Cranborne 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 Cranborne 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 Cranborne 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.

The stone you pick is the part people talk about, and it is the smallest share of the cost. Carrying. A Cranborne cottage with no side access, a farmhouse whose yard a lorry can reverse into, and a newer house with a wide gate cost very differently for the same paved area.

When every flag and every bag of sharp sand travels by barrow down a passage, the hours climb. The work at height rules still apply to raised edges, steps and machines.

What comes out first. The sub base can only go in once the ground is clear. Old concrete paths, a brick raised bed, tree roots and builders' rubble buried years ago all come out and go away by the load. Most of the gap between patio quotes is here.

Levels. A patio has to slope away from the house and sit at least two courses under the damp proof course. On a sloping plot that can mean steps, a retaining edge or a channel drain. Laying against the wall too high is the costliest mistake there is.

The stone. Natural flags vary in thickness and need a full mortar bed. Porcelain is thinner and wants a primer slurry on the back.

Before you choose, find out from any rival whether the flags sit on a full wet bed or on dabs, which jointing compound fills the gaps, and if the edgings and steps are in.

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 does affect the frontage, the boundary and the trees, and those are worth knowing about before you plan anything.

At 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. On the boundary, taking down part of a wall to widen an opening is not automatically something you can just do. Trees are 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 work 13.9 miles from our base in Boscombe when we lay a patio in Cranborne, and we also cover Alderholt, Sixpenny Handley and the lanes across the Chase in BH21, under Dorset Council. The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales as company 15471719. Before you book a visit in Cranborne, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen runs it, and Thomas himself comes to look at your garden, check the levels and price the patio. A verified customer on Checkatrade rated our work 10 out of 10. The survey visit is free of charge, as is your written quote with every part shown. A front path or a driveway in Cranborne is visible from the street, so it gets looked at more closely than the back terrace.

Most repairs in Cranborne 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.