Patios in Everton, set below the damp course

The damp course is found first. Nothing is ordered until the damp proof course has been found and marked. On the bungalows in Everton 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 Everton 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 Everton 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 in paving of this age.

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.

Patios are not priced per square metre. The slabs you choose are the smallest part of the bill. Carrying. If a drive runs to the back gate, barrows go straight in. A semi with a narrow side path, or a park home plot you cannot drive onto, means carrying every slab and bag by hand.

Clearing the ground. Old concrete, a raised flower bed, roots or buried rubble have to be broken up and carted off before anything is laid, and that is priced by the load.

Height against the house. The patio must slope away from the wall and finish at least two courses below the damp proof course. On a bungalow with a low back step, that can mean digging deeper, adding a step or fitting a drainage channel.

Clay underneath. Ground that shrinks and swells needs a thicker, firmer sub base, and rainwater must be carried away rather than left to soak in beside the house.

Your choice of paving. Porcelain, sandstone and concrete slabs cut and lay differently, and a jointing compound costs more than mortar pointing.

Ask other quotes how deep they dig, what sub base goes in, whether each slab sits on a full wet bed or on dabs, and where the water goes.

Bungalows are a big part of the housing in Everton, 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 in Everton 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 lay patios in Everton, Hordle, Downton and along the lanes towards the coast road, in the SO41 postcode. Our base in Boscombe is 10.8 miles away, and the council here is New Forest District. You would be dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales under company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Everton, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

The business is owned by Thomas Hannen, who measures the garden, checks the levels and gives you the price himself. On Checkatrade we have a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer. The site visit is free, as is the written quote with its itemised lines. A bungalow front door has the same shallow step, and driveways in Everton are set below the damp course in the same way.

Most repairs in Everton 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.