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.
Last updated
On an older Ringwood house the patio 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.
A Ringwood terrace needs attention if there is a damp patch inside on the wall behind it, if the paving has crept up over the years until it sits level with the doorstep, or if the old flagstones have finally started rocking while the garden is being reworked.
On a Ringwood patio 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
The level comes down. On an older Ringwood 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 in Ringwood 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
Building a patio properly, from the dig to the jointing
Thomas comes out to Ringwood, measures the area, checks the levels against your damp proof course, and prices it himself. His written quote gives each stage its own figure: digging out and carting the spoil away, the compacted base, the drainage and the slope of the finished surface, any edging, steps or retaining edge, the paving you choose, and pointing up the joints.
Many gardens in Ringwood are reached through a side gate, a passage between terraces, or the house itself, so the plan for getting spoil out and stone in is agreed before we start. Much of the town sits on river terrace sand and gravel, which drains well, though gardens near the Avon stay wetter, so the falls take water away from the house. Thomas is your one contact for the whole job. At the end of each day the site is safe to walk on and swept, and the waste goes with us. If we dig into an old slab or a buried drain, work stops until you have seen a photo and a figure for it.
A patio at ground level is normally permitted development, so no planning application and no building control. A raised terrace, or a retaining wall above the height rules, can be different. New Forest District Council is the authority. The Ringwood Conservation Area covers the town centre, so paving seen from the street there gets a closer look, and where a patio meets a listed building, read the wider permissions guidance first.
Cost
Slabs are the small part of a patio price
A Ringwood patio has no rate per square metre. The slabs you pick are usually the smallest part of the bill. Getting in and out. A town house with a narrow passage, a ground floor flat with a small shared garden, and a semi on the estates with a side gate wide enough for a barrow each take a different amount of carrying. Where every slab and every bag of spoil is carried by hand, that time is priced.
What comes out first. Old concrete, a raised bed, roots or rubble have to be dug out and taken away, and that is priced by the load.
The ground and the water. Loose sand and gravel shift under a thin base. The sub base is compacted in layers, and the falls lead water to a drain or a gravel edge rather than to the wall.
Levels. The finished surface should sit at least two brick courses below the damp proof course. Where that cannot be done, a channel drain is needed, and getting it wrong is the most expensive mistake on a patio.
Laying. A full wet mortar bed costs more than dabs, and it lasts.
Put these to any other firm: what depth of dig, what base material and how thick, a full mortar bed or dabs, and which jointing compound.
If it has become a hazard
A lifted slab, a sunken step or a slippery surface
Put a plant pot or a bucket on any slab that rocks or has lifted at a corner, and on any step that has sunk, so nobody catches a foot on it. Green algae on a shaded patio makes it treacherous once the weather turns cold.
Phone us; the form is for planned jobs. Scheduled jobs run Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm, and if nobody is free to answer, we will return your call as soon as we can. On the first visit the loose slabs can usually be lifted and bedded again, and we check whether the base under the rest has given way.
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 Ringwood 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
Your patio, measured and priced by the owner
From our base in Boscombe, Ringwood is 8 miles. We cover the town centre, Poulner, Hightown and out towards Ellingham under New Forest District Council, and Ashley Heath over the county line under Dorset Council.
The firm is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and it belongs to Thomas Hannen, who measures up and prices your patio in person. One verified customer on Checkatrade gave us a 10 out of 10. The visit is free and the quote, written and broken down line by line, is free as well. Older frontages in the town have the same low walls to respect, and driveways in Ringwood are kept clear of the brick in the same way. Before you book a visit in Ringwood, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Ringwood?
Most repairs in Ringwood 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.
| Question | In Ringwood |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Ringwood. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Ringwood Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Ringwood. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Ringwood. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Ringwood
Can a patio be laid against a wall with no damp course in it?
Yes, and it needs building differently. The paving comes down, not 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. 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, yes: 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.
Nearby, and next door
Patios near Ringwood
Nearby places we also cover for patios, with straight-line distances from Ringwood, and the other trades we offer in Ringwood itself.
Patios nearby
Our other trades in Ringwood
Patios guides
Driveway planning permission and where water goes Frost damage to brickwork: why it shows later Resin bound, block paving or tarmac comparedBuilders in Ringwood: all our building work Everything we do in Ringwood Patios, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
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.