Patio laying in Langton Matravers
The village was built on stone, and a good many gardens here still have the flags to prove it, usually rocking on a bed that gave up years ago.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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For a patio in Langton Matravers the first question is not which slab to buy, it is whether the stone already in your garden is worth lifting and relaying. Very often it is, and it will look right in a way that nothing off a pallet manages.
Old Langton Matravers stone gardens have flags that tip when you walk the corner of them, terraces gone slick and dark on the seaward side, and bare patches where a garden has been re-planned and the paving needs setting out again from scratch.
All three come back to the bed under the stone and the way the surface sheds water. So the survey of a Langton Matravers patio starts with a slab lifted at the edge to see what it has been sitting on, and a level run off the damp proof course. Then you get one written itemised quote with the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the edgings, the paving and the jointing priced on their own lines. The visit and the quote cost nothing.
What we lay here
Local flags, imported stone and porcelain
Lifting and relaying what is already there. Old flags are worth saving. They come up, get stacked and cleaned off, the ground is excavated to a proper formation and the spoil carted away in a skip, and then each flag is bedded back on a full wet mortar bed. Old stone is never calibrated, so thickness runs anywhere across a stack and every piece is set to the line by hand rather than tapped to a fixed depth.
New stone. Sandstone is the common import and the warmest looking. Limestone lays flatter and reads cleaner but takes a mark. Granite is dense and hard on blades, and travertine is soft enough that we would talk you out of it on an exposed terrace. Porous stone gets a slurry primer on the back and a mortar mix matched to the slab, not a general purpose one.
Porcelain. Where a Langton Matravers garden is modern, or where somebody has had enough of scrubbing, porcelain earns its place. Calibrated thickness, tight joints, no water taken up, and a published slip rating, not a guess. It is cut wet, primed on the back and bedded full, and it stays looking the same for a very long time.
The base. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, in layers to a depth that suits the ground, then the mortar bed. What we will not do is a screeded sand bed with the slabs on five dabs. Dabs feel solid on the day and leave voids that hold water, and a void is where the frost gets its purchase.
Levels and the damp proof course. The finished paving falls away from the building and stops at least two courses below the DPC. On the older cottages in Langton Matravers the DPC is low or absent altogether, and then the answer is an open margin against the wall rather than stone tight up to it.
Steps, edges and retaining. Stone steps with a consistent rise, a haunched edge or a low retaining course with a coping, and a planted border where the ground can still take rain. Loose edges are why the outside row always drops first.
Water and jointing. A channel drain at the low end into a gully or a soakaway so the runoff goes somewhere legal, a permeable margin where the ground will take it, and joints brushed in with a two part compound rather than sand or a bagged grout. On weathered stone we point by hand in a softer mix instead.
Repairs. Rocking, sunk and lifted flags, a cracked step, algae and lichen on the shaded half, efflorescence and iron staining on new stone. Half a day sometimes, and sometimes the base has simply run out.
How it runs
A patio on a sloping garden, levelled properly over rock
Thomas comes out, sets a level against the back wall and works out the price himself. Gardens in Langton Matravers often slope, and with limestone close under thin soil the base and the falls matter more than the stone on top. His quote separates the dig and spoil removal, the sub-base, the falls and drainage, edging and any steps, the paving, and the jointing.
Thomas is your contact from dig to pointing on a Langton Matravers patio. Where the garden is reached along a shared path or through the house, materials come in by barrow on a route we agree and protect. We excavate to solid ground, compact the sub-base in layers, and set every slab on solid mortar rather than spots. The garden is tidied every evening and waste leaves with us. If we hit rock, old footings or a drain, Thomas shows you a photo, tells you what it adds, and waits for the nod.
Paving at ground level usually counts as permitted development, and building control has no interest in it. A raised terrace, new steps at the front or taking down a boundary wall are different matters, and a conservation area, if your garden is in one, treats them more strictly, so ask Dorset Council. If the patio butts up to a listed house, you may also need listed building consent.
Cost
Where a patio budget goes on a sloping, stony garden
Patios here are not priced by the square metre. The paving is the part you choose and often the smaller part of the cost, and most of a patio price is decided before the first slab is laid.
Slope and levels. A patio must fall away from the house and sit below the damp proof course. Where the garden slopes, that means steps, retaining edges or a channel drain, and each adds work.
Rock underneath. Where limestone sits near the surface it may need breaking out to get the depth, and rain running off the rock has to go somewhere other than against the house.
What comes out. An old concrete base, a raised bed or roots are dug out and taken away, priced by the load. Rock or old stone footings can turn up too.
Getting materials in. A shared path or no side access means every slab is carried by hand. Where a raised terrace has a drop, the edge is designed with the work at height rules in mind.
The paving. Purbeck stone or another natural stone varies in thickness and takes longer to bed than porcelain or concrete.
Ask another firm how deep the dig goes, whether slabs sit on a full bed, which way the falls run, and whether edging and steps are included.
If it has become a hazard
A slab lifted at the corner or a step that has dropped
If a slab has lifted, a step has sunk or the paving has turned slippery, ring us and leave the form for later. A north facing patio in a damp coastal winter turns green quickly.
We lift and rebed the worst of it, then find out whether the base below the rest has given way. If a retaining edge has started to lean, do not wait, because wet soil and water running off the rock behind it keep pushing. Keep children and older visitors off the worst area meanwhile. Scheduled work is Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and if you cannot reach us, we ring back once the day's work allows.
Worth knowing
Purbeck stone is a real option here, not a nostalgic one
Langton Matravers is quarrying country, and the stone is still cut on the ridge. That matters for a patio because it gives you a genuine local alternative to a porcelain range designed in an office. Purbeck flags are dense, they weather to grey and buff rather than staying one flat colour, and next to the walls and the cottages here they simply look like they belong.
They also behave differently, and anyone quoting should say so. The stone comes riven and uncalibrated, so a pack varies in thickness and the labour goes up because each piece is bedded to its own depth. It is porous, so it takes a primer and it wants a lime rich or moderate strength mortar rather than a hard cement one, particularly against an old wall. It will green up on a shaded side facing the sea, and salt in the air keeps the surface damp between showers, so a sheltered terrace stays cleaner than an open one.
If the flags are already in your Langton Matravers garden, price the relay before you price a replacement. Lifting, cleaning and re-bedding sound like more work than laying new, and often it is not, because there is nothing to buy and nothing to bring in through the gate.
Who you are dealing with
Patios along the ridge toward Worth Matravers
Our Boscombe base is 11.2 miles away. We build patios in Langton Matravers and along the ridge toward Kingston, Worth Matravers and Swanage, broadly BH19, where Dorset Council is the planning authority. The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Langton Matravers, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
When you ring, it is Thomas Hannen, the owner, who comes to check your levels and price the patio. One verified Checkatrade customer marked us 10 out of 10. Coming out to see the garden costs nothing, and the itemised written quote is free. Old Purbeck stone often turns up at the front as well, and a driveway in Langton Matravers can reuse it where it is sound.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Langton Matravers?
Most repairs in Langton Matravers 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.
| Question | In Langton Matravers |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Langton Matravers. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Langton Matravers Conservation Area 1, Conservation Area 2 and Acton Conservation Area 1 and 2. They cover parts of Langton Matravers, so check whether your street is inside one. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Langton Matravers. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Dorset National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Langton Matravers
Can my old stone flags be lifted and relaid instead of replaced?
Usually yes, unless they are badly delaminated. They come up, get cleaned, the base is rebuilt properly and each flag is bedded back on a full mortar bed. It saves buying stone and it saves carting a pallet through a narrow gate.
Why does local stone cost more to lay than porcelain?
Because it is uncalibrated. Every flag is a different thickness, so the bed is adjusted piece by piece instead of running a level over a calibrated tile. The material may be closer in price than you expect; it is the hours that differ.
Does salt air affect a patio this close to the sea?
It keeps everything damper for longer, which favours algae, and it is hard on any metal in the job. So we use stainless or polymer fixings on drainage gratings and edge restraints, and we would put a sheltered terrace on the leeward side of the house if the garden allows it.
Will the conservation area stop me relaying my stone terrace?
No, relaying paving in a garden at ground level is ordinary maintenance and nobody needs to be asked. It is the visible structures that are looked at, such as a raised terrace, new steps at the frontage or altering a boundary wall.
What jointing should go between weathered stone?
On old flags with irregular joints we hand point in a softer mortar, because a rigid resin compound cracks away from a soft stone edge. On new calibrated stone a two part brush in compound is the better answer.
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Free quote
Price the stone you already have before you buy any
Thomas lifts a flag, looks at the bed under it and tells you whether a relay or a new patio is the sensible spend. The visit and the written quote are free.