Patios in Merritown, and where the water goes
On low ground near the Moors River a soakaway can be full before the winter starts, so the drainage gets settled here long before anybody picks a slab.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Merritown sits on low ground close to the Moors River, and here the first question about a patio is not what it is made of. It is where its water is allowed to go, because a soakaway dug on ground that holds water in winter simply fills up and stays full.
The usual trouble on Merritown ground: a terrace that is under water for days after heavy rain, moss and algae in every joint by February, or slabs that have sunk in a soft patch and now tip when you stand on them.
So we come to Merritown and dig a trial hole and fill it with water before anything else. What comes back tells us whether the ground will take the rain off a patio or whether it has to be piped somewhere. Then the whole thing goes into a written itemised quote, dig, base, drainage, paving and jointing on separate lines. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Building a terrace on ground that holds water
Finding out what the ground will take. A hole, a bucket of water and a watch. Merritown ground that drains in minutes will run a soakaway happily. Ground that is still holding water an hour later will not, and no amount of stone changes that. It is twenty minutes that saves an expensive mistake.
Where the runoff ends up. Either a soakaway sized for the area and sited well clear of any footing, or a channel drain along the low edge with a positive outfall to a surface water drain or a ditch. Approved Document H is the standard that decides which is acceptable, and on this ground it is very often the second.
A permeable build. The alternative worth pricing in Merritown is paving laid with open joints over a free draining base that holds the rain and lets it away slowly, set out in BS 7533-13. It uses more stone in the sub base and a deeper dig, and on a garden with nowhere obvious to send water it is often the cleanest answer.
The dig, and what leaves site. Old paving, bedding, concrete and any soft or made ground come out to a formation that can be compacted. On wet ground that can mean going deeper than expected, so the muck away is priced by the load. It goes out by grab lorry or skip and leaves with us.
Sub base and bedding. Geotextile membrane is not optional on soft ground: without it the stone works down into the subsoil and the base thins out. MOT Type 1 goes in compacted layers, then a full wet mortar bed under every slab with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain and dense stone.
Porcelain, sandstone, limestone and granite. On damp ground porcelain is hard to argue with, because it takes almost no water and a textured face keeps its grip through the winter. Sandstone and limestone are porous and green over faster in Merritown. Granite is the toughest of the natural stones. Calibrated slabs lay quicker than hand cut.
Levels, edgings and steps. Paving falls away from the house and finishes two brick courses below the damp course, the figure Approved Document C works to. 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.
Jointing and repairs. Joints brushed in with a two part compound in damp conditions and tooled off. We also do the smaller work: re-bedding sunken or rocking slabs, cutting out cracked ones, re-pointing washed out joints, and clearing algae and efflorescence.
How it runs
Building a patio where the ground stays wet
Thomas comes out to Merritown, looks at how the garden falls and where water sits after rain, and prices the patio himself. Thomas stays in touch with you through the dig, the base and the laying. The quote is itemised: excavation and muck away, sub-base, the falls and drainage, edgings and steps, the slabs, and the jointing.
Everything goes in and out through the garden, so we agree the route first, usually a side gate or a path, and protect it with boards. Slabs are laid on a full wet bed of mortar over a compacted sub-base, not on dabs. The patio is set to fall away from the house and finish below the damp proof course. Spoil leaves with us, and the garden is swept each evening. Should the dig find an old drain, roots or buried rubble, work pauses until you have seen it in a photograph and agreed the price.
Planning here is Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole, and no conservation area covers Merritown. Paving a garden at ground level is permitted development; a raised platform is not, and a retaining wall can bring in building control. Some of the land around here falls in flood zone 2 on the Environment Agency's map, which affects how the surface water is handled rather than whether you can pave.
Cost
Where the money goes in a patio
Most of what you pay for in a patio is under the slabs, not the slabs themselves. Getting in. On some of the larger plots off Matchams Lane a lorry can reach the garden. Where every slab has to be carried along a narrow side path, the job takes longer, and the work at height rules still apply to any raised edge or deep dig.
Breaking out. Old paving, a concrete base, a rockery or a tangle of roots all have to be broken out and carted off first, and that is priced by the load.
Water. Surface water is a high risk on this ground, so the sub-base may go deeper, the falls may be steeper, and a channel drain or soakaway may be needed so rain does not sit against the house.
Levels. The finished surface has to stay below the damp proof course. If the garden rises towards the house, that means steps or a retaining edge.
Stone and joints. Porcelain, sandstone and concrete each cut and lay differently, and the jointing, whether a brush-in compound or a mortar, changes the price and how well weeds are kept out.
Ask others quoting: how deep is the dig, and on what sub-base? A full wet bed, or dabs? Where does the water go?
If it has become a hazard
A slab that has lifted or a step that has dropped
Ring rather than use the form for this. A slab lifted at one corner or a step that has sunk is a trip hazard, and a patio that stays wet all winter goes green and slippery.
We can usually lift and re-lay the worst slabs, then check whether the sub-base under the rest has washed out. If water is ponding against the house wall, tell us, because that is the part to deal with first. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If your call is not picked up, we ring back once we are free, as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Winter water, and the soakaway that never drains
The Moors River runs less than a kilometre from these houses and the ground either side of it behaves accordingly. In August you can dig a hole and it will be dry. In February the same hole has water standing in it by the time you have finished digging. That seasonal swing is the whole problem with drainage design in Merritown, because most people plan a patio in the summer.
A soakaway relies on water leaving it faster than rain arrives. When the surrounding ground is already saturated, nothing leaves, the chamber fills, and the water backs up under the paving. The base softens, the slabs settle unevenly, and the joints stay wet long enough for moss and algae to take hold across the whole terrace.
The advice is straightforward. Get a trial hole dug in your Merritown garden and tested in the wet half of the year if you can, or at least be honest about what the ground does in winter. If it will not take the water, do not buy a soakaway: take the runoff to a real outfall, or build the terrace permeable so it stores the rain in its own sub base and releases it slowly.
Who you are dealing with
Who lays your patio
Merritown is 3.6 miles from our base in Boscombe, in the Hurn and Matchams Lane part of BH23. It comes under Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole Council, along with Bournemouth and Christchurch. The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Merritown, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
It is Thomas Hannen's firm, and Thomas comes to the garden to measure up and price the patio himself. One verified reviewer on Checkatrade gave us 10 out of 10. The visit and the itemised written quote cost you nothing. Where the water goes matters as much at the front, so a driveway in Merritown is planned around the same outfall.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Merritown?
Most repairs in Merritown 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 Merritown |
|---|---|
| Who decides | BCP Council is the planning authority for Merritown. BCP Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Merritown, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Merritown. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Merritown. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Merritown
How can I test the ground myself before I gather prices?
Dig a hole about a metre deep, fill it with water and time how long it takes to empty. If it is still holding water an hour later the ground will not run a soakaway in winter, whatever it does in July.
Is a permeable patio worth the extra cost here?
On ground with nowhere obvious to send water, often yes. The rain is held in the sub base and released slowly instead of running off to a drain that is already full. It needs a deeper dig and more stone, which is where the difference in price sits.
Why does my patio go green every winter and not my neighbour's?
Because the joints and the base stay wet. Algae only need a damp surface and low light. A terrace that drains properly dries between showers and stays far cleaner without anybody scrubbing it.
Can a patio be built where the ground floods?
Usually, yes. Being in a flood zone changes how the water is dealt with rather than whether you can pave. What it rules out is sealing a large area and sending the runoff somewhere that cannot take it.
Do you need a lorry to reach the garden?
It helps, and on the bigger plots here it is usually possible, which keeps the muck away straightforward. Where it is not, a micro digger and barrows do the same job more slowly, and that shows as its own line on the quote.
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Find out whether your ground will take the water
Thomas comes out, digs a trial hole, tests what the ground does and prices the drainage and the paving in writing. The visit and the quote are free.