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.
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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 root damage in Longham follows 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.
In a Longham garden 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 in your Longham garden and never 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 a Longham 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.
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 Longham 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
Laying a patio behind a bungalow door
Thomas comes to see the garden, the levels against the house and where the water runs now, and prices it himself. Bungalows are common in Longham, and the back door of one usually sits close to ground level, so fitting a patio in below the damp proof course is the first thing he checks.
His written price covers the dig and taking the soil away, a compacted hardcore base, the levels and the direction the rain will run, kerbs and any step, the paving you pick, and pointing the joints. You have one point of contact for all of it. Materials come in down the side of a Longham plot, and the lawn and path get boards laid over them. Each slab is bedded on a full bed of mortar, never five dabs. We sweep up every evening, and the soil leaves in our skip. If the spade hits an old concrete base, a root plate or a drain nobody knew about, you see it in a photo, with a price, and decide.
Longham is Dorset Council, with no conservation area, so a patio at ground level behind the house is permitted development. A tree under a preservation order needs notice before its roots are touched. A raised platform over 300mm needs planning permission, and a tall retaining wall brings in building control; when permission is required sets out the line.
Cost
Levels, roots and clay: what a patio price rests on
The slabs you choose are the smallest part of the price. The work under them is the rest. Getting the materials in. A detached house off the Ringwood Road with a drive up to the side gate is easy to barrow to. A plot where every slab and every bag of soil goes through the house or down a narrow path takes far longer.
The dig. An old concrete slab, a raised bed, conifer roots from a boundary hedge or soft made ground all have to be broken out and carted off, and that is counted in loads. On Longham clay the base needs to go deep and be well compacted, or the patio will ride up and down with the ground.
The damp course. Paving has to slope away from the house and sit two brick courses or more under the damp proof course. Where a bungalow door is low, that may mean digging down, putting in a step, or running a slot drain along the wall. Get it wrong and rain is pushed into the wall.
Where the water ends up. On clay, a patio that sheds onto a lawn can leave a boggy strip along its edge, and sometimes a channel and a gully are the right answer.
Ask any other quote: how far down will you dig, and what goes in as the base? Full mortar bed or spots? Which way does it fall, and where does the rain end up?
If it has become a hazard
A patio slab that has lifted or dropped
Ring us for that; the form can wait. A slab that has rocked up at a corner or a step that has sunk is a trip hazard, especially for anyone less steady on their feet, and a shady Longham patio turns slippery with algae over winter.
Mark the bad slab with a plant pot until we get there. We can usually lift and relay the worst slabs on the first visit, then look at whether the base underneath has failed across the rest. On clay, a patio that has dropped along one edge often points to water getting under it, and we will say so. Garden work is booked Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. Should we miss you, we ring back as soon as we can.
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 commonest mistake under trees 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 in Longham 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
Checking who will build your patio
Thomas Hannen owns this business and comes to the garden himself to price the patio. It trades as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales with the number 15471719, and works from a base in Boscombe 4.7 miles from Longham. Before you book a visit in Longham, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
We cover the village, Hampreston, the Ringwood Road corridor and out to Ferndown and West Parley, where Dorset Council is the authority. One verified customer on Checkatrade marked our work 10 out of 10. There is no fee for the visit, and your quote comes in writing with every item listed, also free. Roots do the same thing under a front drive, and a driveway in Longham near a mature tree is built with a no dig approach where needed.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Longham?
Most repairs in Longham 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 Longham |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Longham. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Longham, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Longham. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Longham. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Longham
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, not 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, not 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 instead of guessing.
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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.