Patios in Downton
Terraces built behind terraced houses, where every barrow load has to come through the front door or not at all.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
In Downton the question that decides a patio quote is often asked before anyone looks at a slab. How does the stone get in, and how does the spoil get out. On the old rows through the village there is no side gate, and that changes the job more than the choice of paving ever will.
The work itself is familiar. A back garden terrace that has sunk and now ponds against the wall. A rocking, cracked run of flags laid on next to nothing. Jointing washed out and weeds through it. Or a small courtyard that needs setting out properly with steps and an edge instead of being paved flat.
We come out, walk the route in as well as the garden, lift a slab and take levels off the house. Then you get one written itemised quote with the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the paving, the edges and the jointing listed separately, and the access shown as its own line rather than buried. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Paving a garden you can only reach through the house
Getting in and out. A micro digger fits through most standard side gates and through some hallways on boards. Where nothing fits, the dig is done by hand and barrowed out, and the spoil goes into bulk bags or a skip on the street. A skip standing on the highway is permitted and arranged beforehand, not on the morning. Floors and door frames get boarded and sheeted before anything crosses them.
What comes out. Old concrete, flags on a sand bed, brick paviours, a raised bed built off the wall, roots and made ground. On a small courtyard that can still be several tonnes, which is why muck away is priced by the load rather than by the metre.
The sub base. Geotextile separator over soft ground and MOT Type 1 in compacted layers of about 100mm. It is tempting to cut this short when every barrow is hand hauled, and it is the one thing that must not be cut short, because an uncompacted base is what a rocking patio actually is.
Porcelain. Calibrated twenty millimetre porcelain suits a small enclosed garden: it is dense, takes almost no water and stays clean in a space that gets little sun. It goes on a full bed of mortar over a slurry primed back, never on dabs.
Stone. Sandstone is warm, easy to cut and forgiving, though porous, so it greens in a shaded courtyard. Limestone is more even and marks with iron. Granite is dense and hard wearing and handles heavy foot traffic. Travertine is not one for a wet winter. Hand cut stone varies in thickness so the mortar bed levels it; calibrated stone is sawn to one depth and lays faster in a tight space.
Falls, levels and the damp course. Paving falls away from the building and finishes two courses below the DPC where the garden allows, as Approved Document C sets out. In an enclosed yard the water has nowhere obvious to go, so it is taken to a gully proved to run, a soakaway where the ground takes it, or a permeable build holding the runoff on your land.
Edges, steps and jointing. Edging bedded and haunched in concrete, a coping to any low retaining wall, and a gravel border along the house. Stone is hand pointed in a matched mortar or given a brush in compound worked into a full joint; porcelain takes a grout made for dense units.
Repairs. Re-bedding a rocking slab, rebuilding a sunken corner, swapping cracked units, renewing failed jointing and correcting falls on a terrace that holds water.
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.
Downton is under Wiltshire Council, the village has a conservation area over its historic core and more than a hundred listed entries in the parish, so a frontage, a boundary wall taken down for access or a tree cut back are separate questions from a terrace out of sight at the back. The Planning Portal covers the permissions that sit alongside permitted development, and paving itself is not building control work.
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 terraced cottage on the Borough with no rear access, a semi with a shared passage, and a bungalow with a drive to the gate are three different jobs before a slab is ordered. 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. Tell us on the phone whether there is a side gate, because that decides how quickly we can get to it as much as the diary does. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
No side gate changes the build, not the standard
A good share of the older housing here is terraced or in a close row, and those gardens have one route in: through the house or over a wall. That is not a reason to build a lesser patio. It is a reason to plan the job differently, and to price it honestly rather than discovering it on day two.
In practice it means small deliveries staged rather than a full load dropped on the pavement, boards and sheeting down before anything comes through, bulk bags or a permitted skip for the spoil, and a day or two longer on site than the same garden would take with a wide gate. It also means we would rather use calibrated paving than hand cut, because a sawn slab of consistent depth is far quicker to lay when the mixer is on the street.
Where there is a neighbour's passage or a shared route involved, we ask first. And where the work touches a shared or party boundary, whether that is a retaining edge against next door's wall or a dig close to its footing, the party wall rules are worth reading before anybody starts, because a conversation in advance is easier than one afterwards.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Downton, Charlton All Saints, Redlynch, Morgan's Vale and the villages down the Avon towards Fordingbridge, broadly SP5, under Wiltshire 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
Downton questions we get asked
Can you build a patio with no rear access at all?
Yes, and it is normal work on the older rows here. Everything comes through the house on boards, or over a wall where a neighbour agrees, and the spoil goes out the same way.
Does taking the muck out by hand cost a lot more?
It costs time rather than material, and it appears as its own line on the quote so you can see it. A hand dig on a small courtyard is usually a day or two longer than a machine dig.
Will there be a skip outside for weeks?
No. Where one is needed on the street it is permitted, and we book the exchange to suit the dig. Where a grab lorry can reach the front, the spoil goes straight out in bulk bags instead.
How much dust and mess comes into the house?
Boards over the floor, sheeting on the walls and door frames, and the route swept at the end of every day. It is not invisible, but it should not be something you are still finding a week later.
Is a small courtyard worth doing in porcelain?
Often yes. An enclosed yard sees little sun, and a dense slab with full joints stays clean where a porous one goes green. In a small area the material cost difference is modest.
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Get the access priced honestly, not discovered later
Thomas walks the route in as well as the garden, then prices the dig, the base, the paving and the jointing in writing. The visit and the quote are free.