Patios in Ringwood
A good part of the town centre pre-dates damp proof courses altogether, so the usual rule about finishing two courses below one needs a different answer here.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
On an older Ringwood house the level against the wall is the whole job. Where there is no damp proof course to measure down from, paving laid tight to the brickwork will feed water straight into it, and an open margin along the wall is what keeps the inside dry.
Three things bring people to the phone. A damp patch inside on the wall behind the terrace. Paving that has crept up over the years until it sits level with the doorstep. And a garden being reworked where the old flagstones have finally started rocking.
Every one of those is a levels question first. We lift a slab, look at the bed, find the damp course if there is one, and work out how far the surface has to come down. The job then goes into one written itemised quote with the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the edgings, the paving and the jointing on separate lines, so you can read it against anybody else's. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Paving against old walls and new ones
Taking the level down. On an older property the first job is usually removal rather than laying. Layers of paving, concrete and made ground get excavated back until the ground beside the wall is where it should be, and the spoil leaves by skip or grab lorry, priced by the load. It is unglamorous work and it is the part that actually fixes the damp.
An open margin at the wall. Where a house has no damp proof course, or one so low it cannot be worked to, we leave a narrow gravel filled channel along the base of the brickwork instead of butting stone up to it. It lets the wall dry, it catches the drips off the eaves, and it can be drained away at one end.
The base. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, in layers, then a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of every slab. Not five dabs, and not a screeded sand bed. Voids under slabs hold water, and against an old wall that water has somewhere unhelpful to go.
Stone and porcelain. Riven sandstone and limestone sit well against old brick and are uncalibrated, so every flag is bedded to its own thickness. Granite is harder and travertine softer. Porcelain is calibrated, absorbs nothing and carries a published slip rating, and it looks right behind a modern extension even on a period house.
Falls and thresholds. Water goes away from the building and the finished paving sits at least two courses below the DPC where one exists. Where a door will not allow that, a threshold drain along the frame takes the water rather than the level being raised to meet it.
Steps, edges and retaining. Town gardens here often step down more than once. That means a footing, a retaining course or a low wall with a coping, drainage and weep holes behind it, and steps with a consistent rise. The outer edge is haunched or restrained so the last row cannot spread.
Drainage and jointing. A channel drain at the low end into a gully or soakaway so runoff stays on your ground, a permeable border where the soil takes it, and joints brushed in with a two part compound, or hand pointed in a softer mortar where the paving meets old stone.
Repairs. Rocking and sunk flags, a cracked step, moss and algae on shaded terraces between town buildings, efflorescence and iron staining on new 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 for most of this work. A raised terrace is different, and so is a boundary or retaining wall above the usual heights, where the height rules apply. New Forest District Council is the authority, and with more than sixty listed entries around the town centre a terrace built against a listed building is a consent question, so the wider permissions guidance is worth reading first.
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 town house with a passage to the back, a cottage on a lane with no vehicle access and a house with double gates are three different jobs before a stone is chosen. 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 ten miles down the Avon valley from here, so a Ringwood address is usually looked at inside a couple of days. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Old houses, and the damp course that is not there
Ringwood has a lot of genuinely old property, with the largest share of the town's housing built before 1900. Those walls were put up before damp proof courses were standard, and many of them still have nothing in them. That single fact changes how a patio should be built against them.
The standard advice, finish two courses below the damp course, assumes there is one. Where there is not, the ground level beside the wall is doing the job on its own: keep it low and the wall stays dry, raise it and the brickwork wicks moisture up from the paving and delivers it inside. It is why so many damp patches in older houses sit on the wall behind a terrace that somebody kindly relaid a few years ago, a little higher than the last one.
So on a house like that we take the level down rather than build it up, and we leave a gravel margin along the base of the wall so it can breathe and so rain off the roof does not splash back onto the brick. If a floor inside is solid and low, that is worth mentioning at the survey too, because it changes how far down we can go. Any quote for an old property that does not mention the damp course at all is a quote that has not looked at the actual problem.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover the town centre, Poulner, Hightown, Ashley Heath and out towards Ellingham, broadly BH24, under New Forest District 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
Ringwood questions we get asked
Can a patio be laid against a wall with no damp course in it?
Yes, and it needs building differently. The paving comes down rather than up, and an open gravel margin is left along the base of the wall so it can dry out and so splashback does not hit the brick. Done that way it is an improvement on what is usually there.
Could my patio be causing damp inside the house?
It is one of the commonest causes we see. If the paving sits at or above the internal floor level, or above where a damp course would be, water gets a bridge into the wall. Taking the level down often does more than any treatment applied inside.
How far below the doorstep should the paving finish?
At least two brick courses below the damp proof course, and falling away from the building. Where the door will not allow it, a threshold drain along the frame takes the water instead of the level being raised.
Can old flagstones be reused in a new terrace?
Usually. They lift, clean up and go back on a proper base and a full mortar bed, bedded individually because the thickness varies. It keeps the character of an older garden and saves buying a pallet of new stone.
Do listed buildings in the town change what can be laid?
They can, where the work touches the building rather than the garden. A terrace built against a listed wall is a consent question and the council decide it. Paving out in the garden at ground level normally is not.
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Get the level against the wall right first
Thomas checks the damp course, works out how far the ground has to come down and prices the whole job in writing. The visit and the quote are free.