Patios in Lytchett Matravers

The dig, and what leaves the site. Almost every patio starts by taking something out: turf, an old concrete raft, a raised bed, or made ground a previous owner levelled the garden with. We excavate to a firm formation and the spoil goes by skip or grab lorry, priced by the load rather than the metre. On a plot with only a side gate that is barrow work, and it is the line most quotes are shy about.

Sub base and how the slabs are bedded. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, in layers, then paving laid on a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of each slab. Not five dabs, and not dropped on a screeded sand bed like a block drive. A void under the middle of a slab is where water sits, where frost works and where the crack starts.

Porcelain. Calibrated to an even thickness, so it lays fast and the joints stay tight. It takes up almost no water, so it does not stain and it greens over more slowly than stone, and outdoor ranges carry a published slip rating you can look up. It is cut wet with a diamond blade and it needs that primer, because nothing bonds to the back of a porcelain tile on its own.

Sandstone, limestone, granite and travertine. Riven sandstone is the warm way into natural stone. Limestone lays flatter but marks more easily, travertine is softer again, and granite is the hardest and least forgiving to cut. Most are uncalibrated, so thickness varies across a pack and every slab is bedded individually to the line.

Falls, thresholds and the damp proof course. The surface falls away from the building and finishes at least two courses below the DPC. Where a door sits low, the answer is a threshold drain along the house rather than paving built up to meet it. Getting that wrong is not a snag, it is damp in the wall.

Steps, edges and retaining. A change of level wants a haunched kerb or a low wall with a coping and drainage behind it, tied into steps of a consistent rise, with a planted border left where rain can still soak away.

Drainage and jointing. A channel drain at the foot of the fall into a gully or a soakaway, so the runoff has somewhere legal to go, and a permeable margin where the ground will take it. Then the joints are brushed and worked in with a two part compound rather than sand or a bagged grout.

Repairs. Lifted, sunk and rocking slabs, a cracked step, algae on a shaded terrace, efflorescence and iron staining on new stone. Some of that is a morning. Some of it is the base telling you the truth.

The slabs are the part you choose, and usually the smaller part of the bill. Levels against the house. The finished paving has to sit a good two courses of brick under the damp proof course and slope away from the wall. On a Lytchett Matravers bungalow with a low damp course that can mean digging down, then adding a step or a channel drain at the door.

The clay. Cohesive Lytchett Matravers clay swells in winter, shrinks in summer and drains slowly. A proper depth of compacted sub-base, a membrane under it and slabs on a full mortar bed stop them rocking and stop water sitting on the surface.

Getting materials in. Barrowing every load through a narrow side gate adds days compared with a drive round to the back. A patio you can reach directly is a different job from one where every slab is carried.

Breaking out. Old concrete, a shed base, a raised bed or stumps get broken up and carted off first, and that is charged by the load.

The stone. Porcelain needs a primer and a full bed. Sandstone varies in thickness, so each slab is bedded to level.

Ask a competing quote what sub-base and how deep, full wet bed or dabs, which way the falls run, and which jointing compound.

Thomas Hannen owns the business and he prices your patio after walking the garden with you. We are eleven miles away in Boscombe and cover the village, the lanes out towards Lytchett Minster and Upton, and the plots along Wareham Road, broadly BH16, with Dorset Council as the authority.

Registered name: Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. One verified customer on Checkatrade rated us 10 out of 10. Your site visit and your written, line by line quote cost nothing. Where the ground rises towards the house at the front, a driveway in Lytchett Matravers needs the water caught in the same way. Before you book a visit in Lytchett Matravers, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Lytchett 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.