Patios in Ferndown, built for sandy ground
The heath soil under these gardens drains beautifully and holds nothing in place, so the edgings and the compaction decide how long a terrace stays flat.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Ferndown was built on heathland, and the ground under most of its gardens is sand. That is good news and bad news for a patio. Rain disappears into it, so drainage is rarely the problem here. But sand does not hold a shape, so the edges and the compaction do all the work.
What we get called to: an edging that has rolled outwards and let the paving spread, slabs that have dropped along one side of a terrace, and joints that keep opening no matter how often they are pointed.
All of those are edge and base failures rather than paving failures. We dig a trial hole, see how far down the sand goes and check what the existing edge restraint is actually made of. Then you get a written itemised quote with the dig, the base, the edgings, the paving and the jointing on separate lines. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Building on sand, and making the edges hold
Edgings, and why they matter more here. On sandy ground there is nothing holding a patio in from the sides except the restraint you build. Every border edging is bedded and haunched in concrete along its back, not butted against loose sand. Without that the edge rolls out over a few winters and the whole terrace loosens behind it.
Digging in sand. The sides of an excavation in dry sand collapse as you dig, so a neat trench on Monday is a slope by Wednesday. It means battering the sides or working in shorter runs, and it means the excavation is a little bigger than the finished patio. That is time and it is spoil, and it belongs on the quote rather than as a surprise.
Compaction. Sand compacts well and it also runs. MOT Type 1 goes in over a geotextile membrane in layers of no more than 100mm, each one whacked, because the membrane is what stops the base stone gradually working down into the sand and thinning out.
Full bed laying. Slabs go on a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer painted onto the back of porcelain and dense stone. On free draining ground it is tempting to lay on sand and be done, and that is exactly the build that ends up rocking.
Porcelain, sandstone, limestone and granite. Porcelain takes almost no water, keeps its colour and holds grip when textured. Sandstone is warm and easy to cut but porous. Limestone is quieter and marks with iron. Granite is the hardest wearing. Calibrated slabs sawn to one thickness lay much faster than hand cut stone.
Drainage, which is the easy part here. Sand takes water readily, so a soakaway usually works well and a permeable build with open joints over a free draining base is very much at home on this ground, BS 7533-13 being the reference for how it is put together. Where a channel drain is needed to pick the runoff up, Approved Document H covers whether it can go to a gully or has to find a soakaway of its own.
Levels and steps. Paving falls away from the house and finishes two brick courses below the damp course, the level Approved Document C works to, which on the bungalows here often means dropping the terrace rather than building it up. Steps go off a footing with a coping or bullnose front.
Jointing and repairs. Joints brushed in with a two part compound and tooled off. We also re-set edgings that have moved, re-bed slabs that have lifted or sunk, cut out cracked ones, re-point washed out joints and clear algae and efflorescence.
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.
Ferndown is one of the few places on our patch with no conservation area and nothing listed at all, which is genuinely useful to know: the paving is your choice and nobody is judging its appearance. Ordinary permitted development still applies, so the two limits to watch are a raised platform more than 300mm above the ground, which needs planning permission, and a boundary wall over the height limits Planning Portal guidance on garden walls sets out. Dorset Council is the authority.
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 detached bungalow with a drive to the side gate, a flat with its own small enclosed garden, and a semi where the only way through is a shared passage are three different jobs. 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. Ferndown is six miles from us, so we can usually be with you inside a couple of days. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Sand drains beautifully and holds nothing
The heath soil here is the reason gardens in Ferndown drain so freely and also the reason so many patios end up out of shape. Sand has almost no cohesion. Left to itself it will find its own angle, which is why the sides of a hole collapse, why an unhaunched edging leans outwards, and why a slab bedded on sand alone will always eventually rock.
You can see the pattern from the garden. Failure starts at the perimeter and works inwards. The edging tips, the outer row of slabs drops a few millimetres, the joints open, and once water is getting into the base at the edge, the next winter takes another row. The middle of the terrace is often still perfectly flat while the border has come apart.
What that means for a quote is simple: ask what is going in at the edges. A haunched concrete edging and a membrane under the base are worth more on this ground than a step up in paving. On the plus side, a soakaway here will actually work, which is a real saving on a job that would be a drainage problem two miles down the road.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ferndown, Stapehill, Tricketts Cross and the Wimborne Road East side, broadly BH22, 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.
Questions
Ferndown questions we get asked
Why does my patio keep coming apart at the edges?
Because there is nothing holding it in. On sandy ground an edging needs concrete haunching behind it. Bedded on sand it slowly tips outwards, the outer slabs drop and the joints open from the border inwards.
Is a soakaway a good idea on this ground?
Usually a very good one. Sand takes water quickly, so a properly sized soakaway sited clear of the footings does the job, and a permeable build with open joints works well here too.
Can slabs be laid straight onto sand if the ground drains this well?
They can, and they will move. Free draining ground helps the base but it does not spread the load. A full mortar bed over compacted stone is what keeps a terrace flat, whatever the ground underneath it does with water.
Why is the dig bigger than the patio?
Because the sides of an excavation in dry sand will not stand up straight. We batter them back or work in shorter lengths, which means a little more spoil. It is on the quote rather than sprung on you halfway through.
Is there anything round here that limits what I can lay?
For an ordinary terrace at ground level in a back garden, no. There is no conservation area here and nothing listed. It is raised platforms above 300mm and tall boundary walls that need looking at.
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Find out what your edges are actually doing
Thomas comes out, digs a trial hole, checks the edge restraint and prices the base, the edgings and the paving in writing. The visit and the quote are free.