Patios in Redlynch

Levels first. A patio has to fall away from the building and finish clear of the damp proof course, two courses below it where the garden allows, which is what Approved Document C asks for.

Where a Redlynch garden already stands high, the clearance is bought with a step down, a retaining edge holding the higher ground back and a drainage channel across the threshold. On a cottage with no damp course at all, a gravel margin and a channel keep the paving off the fabric.

Taking out what is there. Old concrete, flags on a sand bed, brick paviours, a raised bed built against the wall, roots and made ground all come out first, and often there is more than one layer of previous patio to remove. We dig to firm formation and load the spoil to a grab lorry or a skip so the muck away leaves with us.

The sub base. Geotextile separator over soft ground, MOT Type 1 brought up in compacted layers of about 100mm. Hardcore tipped in a single lift and given one pass with a whacker is the usual reason a patio is rocking within a few winters.

Porcelain. Calibrated twenty millimetre porcelain is dense, takes almost no water and stays clean, and in a riven or stone effect finish it sits well beside old brick. Laid on a full bed of mortar over a slurry primed back. Never on dabs: the voids find the first heavy pot.

Stone. Sandstone is warm and forgiving and the natural partner to a period cottage, though it is porous and will green on a shaded elevation. Limestone is quieter and marks with iron. Granite is the densest and the most durable. Travertine is not one for a Wiltshire winter. Hand cut stone varies in thickness so the bed levels it; calibrated stone is sawn to one depth.

Steps, edges and retaining. Where the ground drops or climbs, the steps and the retaining edge are set out before a single slab. Edging bedded and haunched in concrete, a coping on the retaining wall, a kerb line at the lawn, and a gravel border along the house wall.

Jointing. Stone is hand pointed in a mortar matched to it, or given a brush in compound worked into a full joint. On an old soft wall we keep the pointing off the brickwork itself. Porcelain takes a grout made for dense units. Short joints let water into the bed and start the algae and the frost lifting.

Where the water goes. Off the falls to a gully we have proved still runs, a soakaway where the ground will take it, or a permeable build with an open graded base so the runoff stays on your own land.

Thomas comes to see the garden and starts at the house wall, finding the damp course, because that fixes how high the patio can finish. Then he works out which way it will fall and where rain will go.

Your Redlynch quote shows the digging and spoil removal, the stone base, how the falls and drainage are handled, any edging or steps, the paving you have chosen and what the joints are filled with. Thomas is the person you deal with, from lifting the turf to brushing in the last joint.

Getting materials in is the big question. A bungalow with a full width gate takes a small digger and a dumper. An older cottage with a narrow side passage means every slab and every bag of spoil is barrowed or carried. On the sloping plots in Redlynch a patio often needs a retaining edge or steps. Nothing is left as an open trench overnight, paths are swept each day, and spoil leaves with us. If roots, an old concrete base or a buried drain turn up, you get a photograph and a price first.

Wiltshire Council is the authority, not Dorset or Hampshire. There is no conservation area over the housing, so a garden patio is ordinary permitted development while the water stays on your land, and paving is not building control work. The listed entries in Redlynch are the exception, and the Planning Portal sets out the other permissions that apply there.

A slab rocking underfoot, a step that has dropped, or paving gone green and greasy in a shady corner of a Redlynch garden is a fall waiting to happen, so ring us rather than using the form. Stand a plant pot on the worst spot until then.

On the first visit we lift and rebed the dangerous slabs so the patio is safe to walk on, and look underneath to see whether the base has washed out or sunk. If a damp patch has shown up inside, on the wall the patio runs up to, mention it when you call, because the level may be the cause. Scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If we miss your call, we phone you back once we are free.

Call now: 07435 839745

On the older cottages in Redlynch the ground floor was laid low and the ground outside has crept up around it, a little at a time, with every path, every load of topsoil and every patio laid over the last one. It is nobody's fault and it is very common on pre-1900 stock.

The consequence is specific. A solid wall keeps damp out partly by having a clear face above ground level, and paving laid up against it takes that away. Water sits at the base of the wall, splash comes back off the slabs, and where there is a damp course the paving simply bridges it. Then the damp appears indoors and gets blamed on the plaster.

So the first half hour of a Redlynch survey is spent on levels rather than materials. Sometimes the answer is a step down and a lower terrace, which also gives you the fall you need. Sometimes the ground has to be held back with a retaining edge and the patio built at the lower level behind it. Occasionally the honest answer is to move the seating area away from the wall altogether and put a gravel margin where the slabs used to be. All three are cheaper than chasing damp inside for another decade.

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

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