Patios in Everton, set below the damp course

Finding the damp course first. Nothing is ordered until the damp proof course has been found and marked. On the bungalows here the DPC is often a brick or two above the garden, which decides the depth of the dig, whether you get a step and where the drainage goes.

The dig and the muck away. Old concrete, an apron round a sun room, tree roots from a boundary hedge and a foot of made ground all get excavated out. The spoil goes into a skip or a grab lorry. On a low bungalow the dig is deeper than people expect, because the slab finishes low and the sub base still has to fit under it.

The sub base. MOT type 1 laid and compacted in shallow layers, with a geotextile under it where the subgrade is soft. Hardcore has its place on a small area, but type 1 locks together, which is why it holds a level under furniture and a hot tub.

Porcelain. The most common choice on these gardens. Calibrated to one thickness, almost no absorption, and made in slip rated finishes, which matters on a shaded terrace. It goes on a full mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of each slab.

Sandstone, limestone and granite. Riven sandstone suits an older bungalow better than a large format porcelain. Limestone and travertine give a flatter surface. Granite setts work for a threshold band or a step tread. None is calibrated, so each slab is bedded to its own thickness.

Full mortar bed, never dabs. A full bed under the whole slab, not five dabs and fresh air, and not a sand screed. Dabbed slabs go hollow, ring under a heel and crack across the middle within a couple of winters. It is the commonest fault we lift.

Falls, thresholds and steps. A fall away from the house across the whole area, never along the wall. Where the threshold is low we drop the patio two courses below the damp course and use a wide shallow step rather than building the level up.

Drainage. An ACO channel at the wall taking runoff to a gully, or a permeable jointed edge and a soakaway at the low end of the garden. On a flat plot the fall is built into the sub base, because you cannot find it in the slabs afterwards.

Edges and retaining. Haunched edging or a kerb to hold the outer course, a retaining edge with a coping where a border sits higher, and a border detail so soil does not wash across the paving.

Jointing and repairs. A resin grout you brush in while the joints are damp, or pointing in mortar on riven stone. We also lift and relay: sunk bays, rocking flags, a cracked slab, staining, efflorescence and a slippery green surface that washing will not keep off.

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

Getting to it. A detached bungalow with a drive to the back gate, a semi with a narrow path down one side, and a park home plot with no vehicle access at all are three different jobs on the same size of patio. 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.

Two in every five homes here are bungalows, and that changes the patio job more than any material choice does. A bungalow floor sits close to the ground. On many of the ones built here in the late fifties and sixties there are only two or three courses of brick between the garden and the damp proof course, and less once decades of soil have been added round the walls.

A patio has to finish at least two courses below that damp course. Build the paving up to meet a low threshold and you bridge it: rain lands on the slab, sits against the brick and wicks past the barrier into the wall. It shows as a damp skirting a year or two later, and by then the patio has to come up again.

So we set the level first and design round it: a shallow step down from the door, a channel across a low threshold, and sometimes taking the surrounding ground down rather than the patio up. That is more digging and more muck away than an overlay, and it is the difference between a terrace that lasts and a damp problem you paid for.

We cover the village, Hordle, Downton and the lanes towards the coast road, broadly SO41, under New Forest District 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.