Patios in Highcliffe
Two hundred metres from the sea a patio stays damp between showers, so grip, jointing and the fall matter more here than the colour of the slab.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Close to the coast a patio spends the winter damp, so it greens over and turns slippery faster than one inland. Choosing a slab with real grip, filling the joints properly and giving it a generous fall are what keep it safe.
The two calls we get most here are related, even though they do not sound it. One is a patio that has gone green and treacherous and needs jet washing every spring. The other is somebody who has slipped on it, or watched a parent do so, and wants the whole thing taken up and done properly.
Both are about how long water sits on the surface. We come out, look at the aspect and the shade, take a survey of the levels, work out where the water is going and price the dig, the base, the drainage, the jointing and the paving on separate lines in a written itemised quote. The site visit and the quote are free.
The work
Paving for a garden that never quite dries
The surface you will walk on in January. Slip resistance is the first question here, not the last. We look at where the patio sits and how wet it stays, then pick a slab with the grip to match. A textured porcelain and a honed limestone can look similar in a brochure and behave completely differently underfoot in a wet February.
Taking out what is there. Usually mid century concrete flags on sand or a slab left by a greenhouse. It is excavated to formation, with any made ground and roots taken with it, and the spoil loaded to a skip. Access decides how: a bungalow with a side gate is barrow work, a corner plot takes machinery.
Levels and the damp proof course. We scrape back, chalk the DPC on the brickwork and set the finished paving two courses below it, falling away from the wall. On the single storey stock here that is often the tightest dimension on the job, and where a threshold has to stay flush we use a recessed channel instead of a step.
Base and bed. Geotextile membrane, MOT Type 1 hardcore compacted in layers, a sharp sand screed to level it, then a full bed of mortar under the whole slab with a slurry primer on the back. Not dabs. A proper mortar bed does not go hollow; slabs on dabs do, and hollow slabs end up rocking, cracked and holding water where you step out of the door.
What salt air does to the choice. Porcelain is calibrated, takes on almost no water and is the easiest surface to keep clean within sight of the sea. Sandstone and limestone are warmer to look at and will green up. Granite is dense and dark. Travertine holds water and we would talk you out of it on an exposed plot.
Joints that do not wash out. Driven rain finds a loose joint and empties it. Everything gets a brush in resin compound, a grout slurry or hand pointing in mortar, never loose sand. Full joints keep weeds out, stop the bed washing and are most of the reason a patio still looks new after five winters.
Falls, channels and edges. A generous fall away from the house, into an ACO channel, an existing gully or a soakaway set clear of the foundations, and permeable construction where the runoff has nowhere to go. Open edges are held with a haunched kerb, a coping where it stands proud and a shingle border along the wall.
Lifting and relaying. Plenty of what we do here is not a new patio. A bay that has sunk, two slabs lifted by a root, algae, efflorescence and staining after a wet winter: we say honestly when that is a clean, a re-joint and a lift and relay rather than a rebuild.
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.
Paving a garden at ground level is ordinarily permitted development, so planning permission is seldom needed and a raised platform is the usual trigger. There are 18 listed entries around Highcliffe, the Castle among them, and work in the grounds of a listed building is a different matter; the council's listed building pages explain it, and the council keeps the list of conservation areas across the council. The level against the house is building control rather than planning, and comes from Approved Document C.
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 bungalow with a side gate, a flat with a shared rear terrace and a corner plot you can get a machine and a skip onto are three different jobs before a slab is cut. 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. Highcliffe is under eight miles away, so a slippery patio by a back door or a slab that has lifted at a step is normally seen within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Salt air keeps a patio damp for longer
Highcliffe is a couple of hundred metres from the water. Salt air does not damage paving, but it changes how a patio behaves, and it changes it in the one way that matters for safety.
Salt draws moisture and holds it. A surface within reach of the sea stays damp between showers instead of drying properly between them, and anything damp for long enough grows algae. That is why patios here go green faster than the same slab five miles inland. Green paving is slippery paving, and on a bungalow the people using it every day are often the ones who can least afford a fall.
So this close to the coast we would spend money in three places before spending it on a fancy slab. A textured surface with real grip. Full resin or mortar joints, because wind driven rain empties a sand joint and then the bed starts moving. And a fall generous enough that the water is gone in minutes. Do those three and a yearly wash keeps it safe.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Highcliffe, Walkford, Chewton Common and the roads down towards the cliff, broadly BH23, under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole 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
Highcliffe questions we get asked
What gives the most grip underfoot when it is wet?
A textured or grip finished porcelain, by a distance. It absorbs almost no water so there is nothing for algae to live in, and the surface texture is engineered rather than incidental. Polished or honed stone is the one to avoid on a shaded coastal plot.
Why is the green so much worse this near the sea?
Salt in the air holds moisture, so the surface stays damp between showers rather than drying out. Algae needs only damp and shade. It is not a fault in the paving and it is not dirt; it is a growing thing, and it returns unless the water leaves faster.
Is jet washing bad for paving?
Used too close or too strong it takes the surface off soft sandstone and blows the joints out, which is how a lot of patios here end up with slabs moving. A wide fan, a sensible distance and a re-joint afterwards is safer.
Can you just re-joint my existing patio?
Often, yes, and it is the cheapest useful thing you can do. If the slabs are still bedded and only the joints have gone, we rake them out and fill with a resin compound. If the bed has washed and the slabs rock, jointing alone will not hold it.
How long does a coastal patio last before it needs work?
The bed and the base should outlive all of us if they were built right. Jointing is the part that wears, and cleaning is annual this close to the sea. Most of what shortens a patio's life here is a joint left open.
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Get a patio you can walk on in February
Thomas comes out, looks at the shade and the falls, and prices the grip, the jointing and the drainage in writing. The visit and the quote are free.