Patios at Matchams, away from the back door
On a plot this size the best place to sit is rarely against the house, so siting the terrace and getting the stone to it are half the job.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
The houses out at Matchams sit on big plots on the heath, and the best spot to sit in a garden that size is very often not next to the back door. A terrace built out in the garden, away from the house, is a different job from one against a wall, and it is worth knowing how before you plan one.
The two questions we get asked most here are where a seating area should actually go, and how we intend to get a machine and several tonnes of stone to it without wrecking the lawn on the way.
Both are answered on site. We walk the plot, look at the sun through the day, work out a route for the machinery and check what the ground does where you want to sit. Then it goes into a written itemised quote with the dig, the base, the edgings, the paving and the jointing on their own lines. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Seating areas out in a large garden
Siting it. A terrace against the house gets the morning and loses the evening, or the other way round. On a plot with room to choose, a detached seating area can be put where the sun actually is at the time you use the garden, and sheltered from the prevailing south westerly rather than exposed to it. That decision is free and it is the one people most often get wrong.
What changes when it is not against the house. No damp proof course to work to and no threshold to match, so the levels are yours. In exchange, everything has to be held together by its own edges, and it needs a fall and somewhere for the water to go just the same, or you get an island with a wet ring around it.
Access and the route in. Long gardens mean a long haul. We track boards across grass so the machine and the barrows are not running on soft turf, keep the stone drop as close to the work as the drive allows, and reinstate the route at the end. Spoil goes out the same way, into a grab lorry or a skip, and it leaves with us. We are registered to carry waste.
The dig and the base. Turf and topsoil off, down to a formation that will compact, geotextile membrane over it, then MOT Type 1 in compacted layers. Out on the heath the ground underneath is generally sandy and free draining, which helps the base but does nothing to spread the load.
Edgings and retaining. A free standing terrace lives or dies on its perimeter. Every edging is haunched in concrete, and where the paving sits proud of the lawn a retaining course with a land drain behind it keeps the base from washing out at the sides.
Full bed laying and paving. Slabs on a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain and dense stone. Porcelain takes almost no water and stays clean under trees. Sandstone is warm and easy to cut but porous. Limestone marks with iron. Granite is the hardest wearing. Calibrated slabs lay faster than hand cut stone.
Drainage. A detached terrace usually drains to the surrounding ground, which on this soil works well. Where it does not, a channel drain takes the runoff to a gully or a soakaway, judged against Approved Document H, and a permeable build with open joints over a free draining base is often neater still.
Steps, jointing and repairs. Steps off a footing with a coping front, joints brushed in with a two part compound and tooled off. We also do the smaller jobs: re-bedding slabs that have lifted or sunk, cutting out cracked ones, re-pointing washed out joints and clearing 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.
This is Dorset Council territory, and there is no conservation area out here and nothing listed nearby, so a terrace at ground level is ordinary permitted development wherever you put it in the garden. Two limits still apply. A raised platform more than 300mm above the ground needs planning permission, and if a summer house or a garden room is going in alongside the paving it has its own rules on size and siting. when permission is required sets out where those lines fall.
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 house with a drive right up to the garden, a plot where the machine has to cross fifty metres of lawn, and a bungalow with a terrace hard against the back wall are three different jobs. 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. Matchams is about seven miles from us, and we are out that way regularly, so it is rarely more than a couple of days. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Getting several tonnes of stone down a long garden
On a small plot the materials come off the lorry and land within a few metres of the work. On the plots out here they do not, and that single fact accounts for a surprising share of what a patio costs. A pallet of paving is roughly a tonne. A base for a decent sized terrace is several more. All of it has to travel from the hardstanding to the spot you have chosen, and the spoil has to make the same trip in reverse.
Doing that badly leaves a garden looking worse than the patio looks good: rutted turf, a stone drop that kills the grass under it, and a barrow line you can still see the following summer. So we board the route rather than run on grass, keep the stone on boards or sheeting rather than straight on the lawn, and put the ground back at the end.
It is worth asking about when you compare quotes, because it is rarely written down. Ask where the materials land, how they reach the work, and who reinstates the route. On a long garden that is a real cost and it belongs on the page.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Matchams, the Hurn Road side of the heath, St Leonards and out towards Ashley Heath, broadly BH24, 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
Matchams questions we get asked
Should the patio go against the house or out in the garden?
Whichever gets the sun when you actually sit outside. Out in the garden you gain the choice of aspect and shelter and lose the step straight out of the kitchen. Plenty of people here end up with a small one at the door and a larger one further out.
Does a detached terrace still need drainage?
It needs a fall, yes, or water sits on it. Out here it will usually run off into the surrounding ground quite happily. Where it will not, a channel and a soakaway, or a permeable build, deal with it.
Will the machinery damage my lawn?
It will if nobody plans for it. We track boards across the route so the weight is spread, keep the stone off the grass, and reinstate the line at the end. It is worth asking anybody quoting how they intend to do that.
How much extra does a long garden add to the price?
Enough that it should be its own line. It is haulage time, in both directions, rather than anything to do with the paving. That is why we itemise it instead of folding it into a rate.
Can you build a patio around an existing tree?
Often, with care. We hand dig near the roots and use a shallow or permeable build so water and air still reach the soil. What we will not do is cut structural roots to get a level base, because that tends to cost you the tree.
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Thomas walks the plot, works out the sun, the shelter and the route in, and prices the build in writing. The visit and the quote are free.