Patios in Milford on Sea, built for salt air

Porcelain paving is the default on the Milford on Sea coast. Fired to almost no absorption, so salt cannot get into it and algae has little to grip. It arrives calibrated, every slab the same thickness, so the bed stays even and the joints line up.

Sandstone, limestone and granite. Indian sandstone is warm and riven and takes a sealer. Limestone is finer but marks from anything acidic, travertine more so. Granite is hardest and least forgiving to cut. Riven stone is not calibrated, so the bed is worked slab by slab.

The dig. A Milford on Sea patio starts with an excavate, not a delivery. Turf, topsoil, old concrete, a shed base or a bed of shingle comes out to a firm formation and the spoil leaves. Access decides how: a skip on the drive, or a grab lorry where one can stand.

The sub base. MOT type 1 in layers, compacted between each one rather than tipped in and rolled over. Depth comes from what the dig finds, not a rule of thumb, and on soft ground a geotextile keeps the subgrade and the stone apart.

Full bed, not dabs. Every slab beds on a full bed of wet mortar, buttered and tapped down, never on a sand screed. Five dabs under the corners is how a slab ends up hollow, and a hollow slab cracks. Porcelain wants a slurry primer on the back or the mortar bed never grabs it.

Falls and the damp course. The surface falls away from the house, never along the wall or back towards it, and finishes at least two courses below the damp proof course. Where a Milford on Sea garden will not allow that we drop the patio and bring you back up on steps.

Where the water goes. A patio sheds a lot of runoff and it has to go somewhere: an ACO channel across a low threshold into a gully, or a permeable build up with a soakaway at the bottom of the garden. Ground that will not take a soakaway needs a positive outfall.

Edges and steps. An edging or a haunched kerb holds the outer course out of the border. Where the garden falls away we build a retaining edge with a coping rather than let the sub base spill. Steps get a full bed and an overhang so water drips clear.

Jointing. A brush in resin compound over damp joints on porcelain and calibrated stone, worked in and tooled off, or pointing in mortar where the look wants it. Grout brushed into a dry joint will not bond, and riven stone gets pointed because the joint width moves.

Putting one right. We also do repairs: a slab lifted at a corner, a bay sunk by a doorway, a rocking or cracked flag, pointing washed out, staining, efflorescence, a surface gone slippery with algae. We lift it and say whether the bed or the base is at fault.

The slabs you pick out are usually the smaller part of what a patio costs. Access. A seafront bungalow with a wide gate, a semi with a narrow alley down one side, and a flat with a shared rear garden each change the delivery before a slab is ordered. Barrow work takes longer than tipping from a lorry, and the work at height rules still apply to any raised edge.

Clay. On ground that shrinks and swells, the sub-base needs depth and proper compaction, and the falls must carry rain away from the house, sometimes into a drainage channel or soakaway.

Breaking out. Old concrete, a raised bed, roots or made ground are dug out and taken away first, priced by the load.

Salt and damp. Some natural stone stains or weathers badly in salt air, and on the seaward side of Milford on Sea any surface stays damp and goes green sooner. Porcelain resists that but needs the right blade and a bonding primer beneath it.

Levels. Where the garden rises, steps or a retaining edge keep the finish below the damp proof course.

Put these to other firms: what sub-base, and how deep? Full bed or dabs? Where does the water go?

The water is under a kilometre away and the most exposed side of the house faces south west, straight into the weather. Salt spray reaches a patio here, and the damage it does never shows on the day the paving goes down.

Salt spray holds moisture, so slabs in Milford on Sea stay damp long after an inland garden has dried, which is what algae wants. And salt in solution soaks into any stone that will take it, then crystallises under the face as it dries and pushes the surface off in flakes.

So in Milford on Sea spend the money on absorption rather than looks. Porcelain takes in almost nothing and neither problem touches it. A dense granite is not far behind. A soft sandstone will drink, bloom white in its first winter and need sealing and resealing. If you want the riven look, stand a sample in a bucket of water overnight first.

The same rule runs through the metalwork. Anything that rusts stains a pale slab within a season, so channel gratings and fixings go in stainless rather than galvanised.

We work from Boscombe, 10.3 miles from Milford on Sea, and lay patios through the village and out to Keyhaven, Hordle and the lanes that run down towards the spit. Planning is with New Forest District Council.

Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the firm, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and its owner Thomas Hannen measures your garden himself before writing the price. A verified customer on Checkatrade gave us 10 out of 10. Both the visit and the itemised written quote are free. Salt and blown sand scour a front drive as well, and driveways in Milford on Sea get the same low absorption choice. Before you book a visit in Milford on Sea, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Milford on Sea 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.