Patios in Ridge
The hamlet sits low between the Frome and the harbour, and ground that soft decides how deep a patio has to be dug long before anyone looks at slabs.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Down here the base is the job. On low, soft ground a patio needs a deeper excavation, a geotextile between the ground and the stone, and somewhere for water to go that is not a soakaway, because the ground will not always take one.
The calls are usually one of three. Paving that has sunk in a dish where the ground gave way underneath. A terrace that sits wet for days after rain while the lawn beside it drains. Or a garden being redone where the last patio lasted about eight years and nobody knows why.
The answer is nearly always under the slabs rather than in them. We dig a trial hole at the edge, see how far down firm ground is, check whether water stands in the hole, and take a level off the damp proof course. Then the work goes into one written itemised quote, with the excavation, the muck away, the sub base, the edgings, the paving and the jointing on separate lines. The visit and the quote cost nothing.
The work
Building a patio on ground that moves
Digging until it is firm. On this ground the depth is set by what we find, not by a rule of thumb. Topsoil, peaty made ground and anything soft comes out until there is a formation worth building on, and the spoil goes by skip or grab lorry, priced by the load. That is why a trial hole before quoting is worth more than a tape measure.
A geotextile between the two. Where soft ground meets clean stone, the stone works its way down into it over a few winters and the surface drops. A geotextile membrane across the formation keeps the sub base and the ground apart and is cheap next to the cost of lifting a patio again.
Sub base. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, laid and whacked in layers, usually thicker here than on a sandy plot up the hill. Then the paving goes on a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of each slab. Not five dabs, and not a screeded sand bed. A void under a slab on wet ground is a puddle waiting under your feet.
Where the water actually goes. A soakaway needs ground that will take water, and near the river it often will not, whatever a percolation test costs to prove. So the design usually turns into a channel drain at the low end running to a gully and a positive outfall, with a permeable border only where the soil genuinely drains.
Falls and the damp proof course. The surface falls away from the house and finishes at least two courses below the DPC. On low ground the temptation is to build up to keep the paving out of the wet, and that is exactly how a damp course gets bridged. The right answer is to take the level down and drain it properly.
What goes on top. Porcelain is calibrated, absorbs nothing and carries a published slip rating, which counts where a surface stays damp. Sandstone, limestone, granite and travertine are uncalibrated and warmer looking, so each slab is bedded to its own thickness.
Edges, steps and jointing. A haunched kerb or a retaining course with a coping to stop the outer row spreading into soft ground, steps of an even rise, and joints brushed in with a two part compound rather than sand or a bagged grout, because loose sand washes out fast where water sits.
Repairs. Sunk, rocking and lifted slabs, a cracked step, algae and moss on a damp terrace, efflorescence and iron staining on newer stone.
How it runs
From your call to a written price
Same team from first visit to last, one person to ring, and no sub-contracting your work out to somebody you have never met. The quote is itemised, not a figure on the back of a card: excavation and muck away, the sub base, the falls and where water goes, edgings and steps, the slabs themselves, and jointing on separate lines, so you can compare it properly against anyone else's.
Nothing is left open or unusable overnight. The site is swept at the end of each day rather than the end of the job, and what comes out leaves with us. If something turns up once we start that nobody could have seen, you get a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Paving a garden at ground level is normally permitted development, so no planning application and no building control notice are needed for most of this. Raised platforms and a boundary or retaining wall above the usual heights are the exceptions, where the height rules apply. Dorset Council is the authority, there is no conservation area over the hamlet, and where a property is listed a terrace against the building would need listed building consent.
Cost
What decides the price of a patio
No rate per square metre, because the slabs are the part you choose and the smallest part of the price.
Getting to it. A cottage on a single track lane, a house set back behind a long drive and a bungalow with double gates are three different jobs before a load of stone is ordered. Everything comes in and goes out through the garden, often through a side gate or the house. A patio you can barrow to directly is a different job from one where every slab is carried. The work at height rules still apply to the dig and the machinery.
What is coming out before anything goes down. An old concrete slab, a raised bed, tree roots or made ground all have to be dug out and taken away, and that is priced by the load rather than by the metre. The dig is where a patio quote is won or lost.
Falls, levels and the damp course. A patio has to fall away from the house and finish at least two courses below the damp proof course, and getting that right often means steps, a retaining edge or a drainage channel. Laying a new patio up against a wall at the wrong level is the single most expensive mistake on this kind of job.
Comparing quotes? Ask how deep the dig goes and what sub base is specified, whether the slabs are laid on a full wet bed or on dabs, what the falls are and where the water goes, whether edgings and steps are included, and what the jointing compound is. Two quotes for the same job are usually two different jobs.
If it has become a hazard
A patio that has lifted, sunk or turned slippery
Ring rather than use the form. A slab that has lifted at one corner or a step that has dropped is a trip, and a north facing patio in winter can be genuinely dangerous. We can usually lift and re-lay the worst of it quickly, then look properly at whether the base under the rest has gone. We are under ten miles away, so a call from this side of Wareham is usually looked at within a day or two. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Low ground, and why the dig goes deeper here
Ridge lies on the flat between the Frome and the top of the harbour, on the lane down to the wharf. It is lovely ground to look at and awkward ground to build on. The water table sits close to the surface for much of the winter, and the top of the profile is often soft, dark and slow to drain.
What that changes is the part of the patio you never see. On firmer ground a standard depth of sub base does the job. Here the excavation goes down until there is something worth compacting against, a membrane is laid so the stone cannot migrate into the soft material below, and the base is built thicker. Skipping any of that is why patios in low lying gardens dish in the middle after a few winters and why a step by the back door drops away from the threshold.
It also changes the drainage. A soakaway only works if the ground will accept the water, and beside the river it frequently will not, so the sensible design takes surface water to a channel and a positive outfall rather than into a hole in the garden. If a quote for a garden down here shows a soakaway without anyone having dug a hole to test the ground, ask how they know.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Ridge, Stoborough, Arne parish and the lanes towards the wharf and Wareham, broadly BH20, under Dorset Council. You are dealing with Bournemouth Roofing & Building, the trading name of Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, which you can look up in a minute. Thomas Hannen's business, and he is the one who comes out to price the job, not a salesman. A verified customer's 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade. The visit and the written quote are both free.
Questions
Ridge questions we get asked
Why does my patio keep sinking in the middle?
Nearly always because the sub base has worked its way into soft ground below it, or it was never dug deep enough to reach firm material. Relaying the slabs on the same base buys a year or two. Rebuilding the base with a membrane under it is the actual repair.
Will a soakaway work in a garden this low?
Sometimes, often not. It depends whether the ground will accept water at the time of year when you need it to, which is a hole and a test rather than an opinion. Where it will not, the surface water goes to a channel drain and a proper outfall instead.
How deep should the excavation be for a patio?
As deep as it takes to reach ground worth building on, which on this side of Wareham can be a good deal more than the usual figure. That is why we dig a trial hole before pricing rather than quoting a depth over the phone.
Is a membrane really necessary under the stone?
On soft ground, yes. Without one the clean stone and the wet ground gradually mix, the base loses its thickness and the surface follows it down. It costs very little at the time and saves the whole patio later.
Can you still lay a patio in winter?
We work all year, but not into a frost and not on a saturated formation, because neither the compaction nor the mortar bed will do what it should. In a wet spell we would sooner move a start date than build a base that is going to fail.
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Dig a hole before you price a patio
Thomas opens the ground at the edge, finds out how deep firm material sits and prices the base, the drainage and the paving in writing. Both are free.