Patios in Owermoigne

Falls before finishes. Paving runs away from the building, not along the wall, and it finishes two courses below the DPC where the garden allows, which is what Approved Document C is about. An Owermoigne patio set flat because it looks tidier is the commonest reason a terrace ponds, and it is not something a different slab will fix.

Where the water goes. The water can go to an existing gully, if we can prove it still runs rather than assuming it, or to a soakaway, sized and sited properly and dug where a trial hole shows the ground will actually take it. A permeable build is the alternative, with an open graded stone reservoir under the paving and permeable jointing above it, so the patio holds the rain and lets it go slowly. BS 7533-13 covers how that is built, and Approved Document H covers surface water drainage generally.

Channels and thresholds. Where a door sits low, an ACO channel across the threshold with a proper outfall gives back the clearance you need without raising the paving up the wall. It is a small line on a quote and it saves a lot of trouble.

The dig. Old concrete, sunken flags, brick paviours, a raised bed, roots and made ground all come out. We excavate to firm formation and the spoil goes into a grab lorry or a skip and leaves with us.

The sub base. Geotextile separator over soft ground, then MOT Type 1 in compacted layers of about 100mm. A base built in one deep lift and given a single pass is the reason most rocking patios rock.

Porcelain and stone. Calibrated twenty millimetre porcelain absorbs almost nothing and stays clean, laid on a full bed of mortar over a slurry primed back and never on dabs. Sandstone is warm and easy to work but porous, so it stains and greens in shade; limestone is quieter and marks with iron; granite is the densest of the three; travertine is a poor choice for a wet winter. Hand cut stone varies in thickness so the mortar bed levels it, calibrated stone is sawn to one depth.

Edges and jointing. Edging bedded and haunched in concrete, a coping to a low retaining wall, a kerb line at the lawn, and a gravel border along the house. Stone gets hand pointing in a matched mortar or a brush in compound worked into a full joint; porcelain takes a grout made for dense units.

Repairs. Re-bedding rocking slabs, rebuilding a sunken bay that holds water, replacing cracked units and renewing jointing that has washed out.

Thomas comes out to Owermoigne, checks your levels against the house and its damp proof course, and works out how materials will reach the garden. His quote lists excavation with muck away, then the sub base, falls and drainage, edgings and any steps, the slabs, and jointing, each separately. Thomas is your contact from the first cut to the last joint.

Where a side gate is wide enough, a small digger saves days. Where it is not, spoil and slabs go by barrow. Deliveries from 22 miles away are timed so slabs are not left sitting on a verge. Lawns and paths are protected, the site is swept each day and the waste leaves with us. Buried concrete, roots or an old drain are photographed and priced, and the dig waits for your answer.

A back garden patio is permitted development and needs no application so long as the rainwater stays within your own land. The conservation area covering the village's historic core is about boundary walls and what the street sees, not an enclosed back garden. The thirteen listed entries in Owermoigne are the exception, and work in the curtilage of one is a consent question; Dorset Council holds the record of what is listed. Paving is not building control work, though a connection into an existing drain can be.

A slab tipped up at one corner, or a sunken step, is a trip waiting to happen, and a north facing Owermoigne patio grows slippery and green over winter. Usually we can lift and re-lay the worst slabs, then check whether the base has failed under the rest, which a thin base laid years ago may have.

A photo taken while it is raining shows us where the water sits. We work Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, on booked jobs. For a hazard like this, phone rather than filling in the form, and if you get no answer we ring back as soon as we are able.

Call now: 07435 839745

Villages out in Owermoigne are not served by a surface water sewer the way a town street is. Rain that lands on a roof goes to a soakaway or a ditch, and rain that lands on new paving has to be dealt with the same way. It is not a planning obstacle for a rear patio, it is a design problem you either solve at the start or live with afterwards.

The common mistakes are all versions of ignoring it. Paving laid flat so the water simply stands. Paving falling towards the house because that was the easiest level to work to. A soakaway dug too close to a wall, or dug into ground that will not take water, so it fills and stays full. And a new terrace draining onto next door's garden, which is a conversation nobody enjoys having.

So the survey includes a hole and a bucket of water as well as a tape measure. If the ground drains, a properly sized soakaway set well away from the building is the simplest answer. If it does not, the falls run to a ditch or a border that can genuinely take it, or the whole build goes permeable so the patio itself becomes the storage. Knowing which before the quote is written is why the drainage sits on the quote as its own line rather than appearing as an extra later.

Nearby places we also cover for patios, with straight-line distances from Owermoigne, and the other trades we offer in Owermoigne itself.

Everything we do in Wareham Patios, all areas Every area we cover