Patios in Longham, and the trees they sit under
On the older plots here the trees came first, and a root under a slab will beat any base you put over it, so the design has to give way rather than the tree.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
The older plots at Longham came with mature trees on them, and a tree is the one thing in a garden that will beat a patio. Roots lift slabs from below, and cutting the roots to fit the paving is how you end up with a dead tree and a bill from a neighbour.
So the calls here have a pattern. A row of slabs riding higher every year near a conifer hedge. A terrace under an oak that is permanently green and drops sap on the furniture. Or paving that has cracked in a line running straight back towards a trunk.
We look at what is growing before we look at what is paved. Where the roots are, how big the tree will get and whether the patio can move rather than the tree. Then it goes into a written itemised quote with the dig, the base, the paving and the jointing on separate lines. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Paving around trees, and everything that goes under it
Working out what the roots are doing. We dig a hand trial hole rather than put a machine through a root plate. Structural roots close to a trunk have to stay. The fine roots further out can often be worked around, and knowing which you have decides whether the patio gets built where you wanted it.
Building over roots without killing the tree. Where paving has to go near one, a no dig build is the honest answer: a cellular deck or a shallow granular raft laid on the existing ground rather than an excavation, with a permeable surface over open joints so water and air still reach the soil. It costs more than a standard dig and it is the only version that leaves the tree alive.
Root barriers. Where a patio sits between a young tree or a conifer hedge and the house, a vertical root barrier down the edge of the excavation steers new growth downwards instead of under the slabs. Retrofitting one after the paving has lifted costs far more than putting it in on day one.
The dig and the muck away. Old paving, its bedding, broken concrete, stumps and spoil all leave site by grab lorry or skip. Stump and root arisings are bulky, so the muck away is priced by the load rather than by the square metre. We are registered to carry waste.
Sub base and bedding. Away from the trees it is the standard build: geotextile membrane where the ground is soft, MOT Type 1 compacted in layers, then a full wet mortar bed under every slab with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain and dense stone. Dabs leave voids, and voids crack slabs.
Porcelain, sandstone, limestone and granite. Under trees, porcelain earns its keep: it takes almost no water, so sap, leaf tannin and algae sit on the surface and wash off rather than soaking in. Sandstone and limestone stain from leaf fall. Granite is hard wearing and holds its colour. Calibrated slabs lay faster than hand cut stone.
Falls, edgings and drainage. Paving runs away from the house and finishes two brick courses below the damp course, as Approved Document C sets out. Border edgings are haunched in concrete, steps go off a footing with a coping front, and a retaining course gets a land drain behind it. Runoff goes into a channel drain and on to a gully or a soakaway sited clear of both the footings and the root plate.
Jointing and putting things right. Joints brushed in with a two part compound and tooled off. On existing terraces we lift and re-bed the slabs a root has pushed up, 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.
Longham is Dorset Council, and there is no conservation area here, so paving a back garden is ordinary permitted development. Trees are the exception: one covered by an order, or standing in a conservation area, needs written notice before anybody touches it, roots included, and the same care applies to the ground around a listed building. A raised platform over 300mm needs planning permission, and a tall retaining structure brings building control in as well. when permission is required sets out where the line falls.
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 house off Ringwood Road with a drive to the gate, a bungalow with a conifer hedge along one boundary, and a cottage plot with mature trees on it are three different jobs before anything is dug. 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. Longham is about five miles from us, so we can usually be out within a couple of days. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The tree will win, so design around it
Roots do not push slabs up out of malice. They grow where the water and the air are, and the edge of a patio, with its damp granular base and its open joints, is one of the best places in a garden to find both. A root finds that line, thickens over a few seasons and the paving above it rides up. Nothing you lay on top of it changes that.
The mistake we are asked to fix most often felt sensible at the time: somebody cut the roots back to get a level base. A tree that loses a structural root can become unstable, and it often dies back over the following two or three years. If it is a boundary tree, it was probably not yours to cut anyway.
The workable answers are all about avoidance. Move the patio a metre. Build it as a no dig raft with permeable joints so the ground underneath keeps breathing. Put a root barrier in along the edge before the base goes down. Or accept a few loose laid slabs near the tree that can be lifted and re-bedded now and then, which is a far cheaper way to live with it than a rebuild.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Longham, Hampreston, the Ringwood Road corridor and out towards Ferndown and West Parley, 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
Longham questions we get asked
Can you cut the roots so my patio lies flat?
We would rather not, and on a mature or boundary tree we will say so. Losing a structural root can make a tree unstable and often kills it back over a couple of years. A no dig build or moving the terrace a metre is the safer answer.
What is a no dig patio?
A shallow build laid on the existing ground rather than an excavation, usually a cellular deck or a thin granular raft with permeable joints. It keeps water and air getting to the roots. It costs more than a standard base and it is the only method that leaves a tree healthy.
Is a root barrier worth fitting when the base goes down?
It steers new root growth down and away rather than under the slabs, which on a hedge or a young tree is very effective. It is not a cure for a root that is already there, which is why it wants putting in when the base goes down.
Which paving copes best under trees?
Porcelain. It absorbs almost nothing, so leaf tannin, sap and algae sit on the surface and come off with a wash. Sandstone and limestone are porous and take the staining in, and a shaded terrace under a canopy is the hardest place to keep them looking right.
Do I need permission before working near a neighbour's tree?
Check whether it is protected before anything is dug, and remember you have no right to cut roots on their side of the boundary. We point you at the council rather than guess.
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Get the roots looked at before the base goes in
Thomas comes out, digs a hand trial hole, works out what the roots are doing and prices the build in writing. The visit and the quote are free.