Patios in Minstead, terraces away from the house

Getting materials to the spot. The first thing we work out in Minstead is how stone, sand and MOT Type 1 reach the place you want them, and how the spoil comes back. A tracked barrow over boards, a micro digger where a gate will take one, or hand digging where roots or a bank rule machinery out. It is a real line on the quote because it is real work.

Setting out without a house to work off. Away from the building there is no damp course and no threshold to take a level from, so the datum is the ground itself. We set the terrace so it sheds water in the direction the garden already drains, rather than creating a flat pan that collects it.

The dig. Topsoil, roots and any made ground come out and are excavated back to a firm formation. Out in a Minstead garden the topsoil is deeper than it is next to the house, so there is more spoil than people expect. An old concrete shed base is worth allowing for too, because it has to be broken out and carted away.

The sub base. MOT Type 1 in thin lifts whacked to full compaction, carried past the edge of the paving, on a geotextile separator where the ground is soft. A terrace out in the garden sits on softer ground than one by the back door, so the compaction still has to be right.

Full mortar bed. Slabs on a full wet bed with a slurry primer on the back. Dabs leave voids under the stone, and out in a garden where the ground moves with the seasons a void turns into a rocking slab quickly.

What we lay. Porcelain is calibrated, sheds water, does not stain and holds grip in the wet, which matters under trees. Riven sandstone is warmer and porous and is bedded slab by slab. Limestone marks more easily, granite is the toughest, and travertine wants somewhere sheltered.

Edges, retaining and steps. A terrace cut into a slope needs a retaining edge or a low wall with coping to hold the higher side, a haunched edging or kerb where the paving meets grass, and steps with equal risers. That is what stops the build up creeping downhill.

Drainage and jointing. Water goes to a channel and a gully with an outfall, or to a soakaway where the ground will take the runoff, and a permeable build up over open graded stone is often the simplest answer out in a garden. Joints are filled with a brush in resin compound worked wet and tooled off. Repairs are the usual list: lifted slabs, a sunk corner, rocking paving, cracked stone, algae, efflorescence on new sandstone and staining.

Patios here are not priced by the square metre. The slabs you choose are usually the smallest share of the cost.

Carrying. A cottage at the end of an unmade track, a house where the only way to the back is a gated drive, and a terrace planned at the far end of a long garden all mean different amounts of barrow work in Minstead. Every slab that cannot be driven close has to be walked in.

Clearing the ground. Old concrete slabs, raised beds, roots and made ground are dug out and removed by the load. Forest clay beneath the topsoil holds water, so the sub-base usually needs to be deeper in Minstead than on free-draining sandy ground.

Falls and the damp course. The finished surface must slope away from the house and sit at least two courses below the damp proof course. Achieving that may call for steps, a retaining edge or a drainage channel, and on clay the run-off needs somewhere it can genuinely drain.

Slabs and bedding. Porcelain, sandstone and concrete each handle differently. A full bed of sharp sand and cement mortar costs more than spot dabs, and it is what stops slabs rocking and cracking.

Ask any other firm how deep they dig and what sub-base goes in, whether the slabs sit on a full bed or on dabs, which way the falls run and where the water ends up, whether edgings and steps are included, and which jointing compound they use.

We build patios in Minstead, Emery Down, Cadnam and along the lanes of the northern Forest, broadly SO43, 15.6 miles out from our Boscombe base. Any planning question goes to the New Forest National Park Authority.

The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and it belongs to Thomas Hannen. Thomas walks the garden with you and prices the patio himself. Checkatrade carries a 10 out of 10 from a verified customer of ours. There is no charge for the site visit, and the written quote comes itemised and free. Getting materials along an unmade track is often half the job, and a driveway in Minstead can be priced on the same visit. Before you book a visit in Minstead, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in Minstead 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.