Patios in Lytchett Matravers
The village runs along a ridge and the gardens run back off it, so on a good many plots the lawn sits higher than the back door.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A patio here is a levels job before it is a paving job. Where the garden rises behind the house, the water has to be caught and taken somewhere before a single slab is chosen, and that decision matters far more than the choice between porcelain and sandstone.
People ring us about three things. A slab that rocks under your foot at one corner. A terrace still wet two days after rain when the rest of the garden has dried. And an old paved square that no longer suits the house since the back was opened up.
None of those are cured by better slabs. What sits under a patio, and which way it falls, decides how it behaves for the next twenty years. So the site visit starts with a trial hole at the edge and a level taken 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 on their own lines. The survey and the quote are both free.
The work
Paving, steps and the ground under all of it
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.
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.
A patio at ground level in a back garden is normally permitted development, so most of this needs no planning application and no building control involvement. What gets looked at is a raised platform, and any retaining or boundary wall going in with it, where the height rules apply. Dorset Council is the authority and there is no conservation area over the village, though a terrace against one of the fifteen listed buildings would need listed building consent.
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 bungalow with a drive round to the back, a detached house with double gates, and a semi where the only way in is a 900mm side gate are three different jobs before a slab is ordered. 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. The village is nine miles from us on the Poole side, so we can usually get out and look within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
When the garden is higher than the back door
The village sits along a ridge and the plots run back off it, so a good many gardens here rise behind the house rather than fall away from it. That is the awkward one. The rule that a patio falls away from the building still holds, but if the ground behind keeps climbing, all you have built is a shallow tray that collects whatever comes down the slope and delivers it to your back wall.
On a rising plot the patio is designed from the back forwards. A slot drain runs along the top edge where the paving meets the lawn or the retaining wall, the surface falls into it, and the water goes away on your own ground. Behind a retaining edge goes a drainage layer and weep holes, because a wall holding back wet ground will lean out of line eventually.
The advice is simple enough. Before you spend on slabs, walk the garden in heavy rain and watch where the water runs. If it comes down towards the house, ask whoever is quoting to show you on paper where that water ends up.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover the village, the lanes out towards Lytchett Minster and Upton and the plots along Wareham Road, broadly BH16, 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
Lytchett Matravers questions we get asked
Should my slabs be laid on a full bed or on dabs?
A full wet bed every time outdoors. Dabs are quicker on the day and leave voids under the slab where water sits and frost works, which is what makes a slab rock or crack two winters later.
Is porcelain worth it over natural stone?
It depends what you want from it. Porcelain stays cleaner and has a published slip rating. Stone looks warmer and ages into a garden. Porcelain costs more to lay because of the primer and the wet cutting, so the gap on the finished bill is smaller than the gap on the pallet.
How many days does a rear terrace take to build?
A straightforward rear terrace with decent access is most of a week: a day or two digging out and carting away, a day on the base, then laying and jointing. Steps, a retaining wall or barrowing through a side gate add days rather than hours.
Will a new patio stop the back wall staying damp?
Only if the level comes down. Where old paving has crept up to within a course of the damp proof course, new stone at the same height changes nothing. We take the level off the house first and fit a threshold drain where the door is low.
My terrace has gone green and slippery on the shaded side. Can it be saved?
Usually. Algae on a north facing terrace is a surface problem rather than a base problem, so a clean and a change of jointing often deal with it. If the slabs rock as well, the green is the least of it.
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Find out what is under your patio before you price a new one
Thomas comes out, digs a trial hole at the edge, takes the levels off the house and prices the work in writing. The visit and the quote are free.