Patios in Holton Heath

Working out whether it can be saved. Not every builder's patio in Holton Heath needs ripping out. We lift a couple of slabs at the edge and look underneath. A real depth of compacted hardcore means a lift and relay. Forty millimetres of sand over subsoil means a rebuild, and we would rather say so on day one than halfway through.

What is usually there. Flags on dabs or on sand, no membrane, a token skim of stone, and the whole thing laid dead flat because a fall takes thought. That is why it ponds by the door and why a slab or two is rocking, cracked and hollow when you tap it.

The dig and the muck away. Old flags, the sand they sat on, any made ground from the original build and any roots that have found their way in, all excavated to formation. Access on the Holton Heath estates is fine for machinery and a skip, and the spoil is priced by the load that leaves.

Levels, and the bit the builder skipped. We scrape back, chalk the DPC on the brickwork and set the paving two courses below it with a proper fall running off the wall. Where a threshold has to stay flush for a patio door, a recessed channel takes the water instead of a step taking the height.

Base and bed. Geotextile membrane, MOT Type 1 hardcore compacted in layers to a real depth, a sharp sand screed to level it, then a full bed of mortar under every slab with a slurry primer on the back. A proper mortar bed is the difference between this patio and the one you are taking up.

The paving. Porcelain is calibrated, so the joints stay even across a wide area. Riven sandstone is hand cut and warmer against brick, limestone and granite wear harder, and travertine holds water. Joints are filled with a brush in resin compound, a grout slurry or hand pointing in mortar, never the loose sand that came with the original.

Edges and steps. The perimeter goes on a haunched kerb or an edging bedded in concrete, not butted against soil, retaining walls sit on a footing with a coping over them, and a gravel border runs along the wall to take splashback. That edge is the commonest omission on developer paving here.

Where the water goes. The fall runs into an ACO channel, an existing gully or a soakaway set clear of the foundations, and permeable construction where the runoff has nowhere else to travel. This is the Poole Harbour catchment, so surface water stays on the plot rather than being pushed out to the road. Where paving has only sunk in one bay, or gone slippery with algae and shown efflorescence and staining, we quote the lift and relay.

The slabs you pick are usually the smallest part of the bill. Most of it is groundwork. The route in. On an open plot a small digger and a skip can come round the side, which is quick.

On a Holton Heath semi where it all goes through a side gate, or a garden backing onto fields with no way in for a vehicle, each slab is carried in by hand and each barrow of spoil wheeled out. Where the garden drops in level, the HSE's work at height rules shape how steps and edges are built.

What has to come out. An old concrete base, a raised bed, tree roots or builder's rubble under the lawn is dug up and removed, priced per load rather than per metre.

Getting the levels right. The patio must fall away from the house and finish two brick courses under the damp proof course. On slow draining, cohesive ground that fall and a channel drain along the wall matter even more, and it may mean steps or a retaining edge.

What the slabs sit on. On a full bed of mortar over a compacted sub base, slabs stay put. On a few dabs, they start rocking within a couple of winters.

When other firms quote, ask how deep they dig and what sub base goes in, full bed or dabs, which way the patio falls and where that water goes, and what goes in the joints.

From our base in Boscombe it is 10.7 miles to Holton Heath. We lay patios here and in Sandford, Organford and the roads towards Wareham and Lytchett Minster, all in the Dorset Council area. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Holton Heath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Walking the garden, checking the levels and pricing it is done by Thomas Hannen, whose firm it is. A verified customer's score on Checkatrade is 10 out of 10. Neither the visit nor the written, itemised quote costs anything. The developer usually laid the front the same way, so a driveway at Holton Heath gets the same look underneath first.

Most repairs in Holton Heath 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.