Patios in Sandleheath, priced after the trial hole
Gardens behind older houses hide old yards, shed slabs and outbuilding footings, and what the dig finds decides the depth, the spoil and the price.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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Behind an older house in Sandleheath, a patio dig almost always finds something. A brick yard under the turf, the footings of a coal store or a privy, a concrete slab where a shed stood for forty years. None of it is a disaster, but it changes the depth, the muck away and the price, which is why we open a hole before quoting rather than after.
Behind older Sandleheath houses there is often an old paved area that has sunk and holds water, a lawn where somebody wants a terrace with no idea what is under it, or joints on an old stone patio washed out until weeds have taken over.
In Sandleheath all three are answered the same way. Dig a trial hole, see what is there, take levels off the house, then put it in writing: the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the falls, the drainage, the edgings, the paving and the jointing on separate lines. The site visit and the itemised quote are free.
The work
What the dig finds behind an older house
A hole gets opened first. On a Sandleheath plot with a century behind it the ground is a record of everything that has stood on it. We dig a trial hole where the terrace is going, and if it turns up an old slab or a footing we say so before the price is written.
Old concrete and buried footings. Sometimes an old slab can serve as the base if it is sound, thick enough and at the right level. More often it is thin, cracked and laid straight on soil, so it comes out. Buried brick footings get broken out or the sub base cannot be built to an even depth.
The dig and the muck away. Turf, topsoil, rubble, ash, roots and made ground in a Sandleheath garden get excavated back to a firm formation. Old brick and concrete are heavy, so the spoil load is bigger than a plain soil dig. It leaves in a grab lorry or a skip.
The sub base. MOT type 1 in compacted layers, with a geotextile between subgrade and stone where the ground is soft or mixed. Where old fill has come out, the replacement stone goes back in lifts so it is as good as the ground beside it.
Full bed, never dabs. Every slab on a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain. Not five dabs and not a sand screed. Over ground that has been disturbed and rebuilt, full support under each flag is what keeps the surface honest.
Sandstone, limestone and granite. Riven sandstone in a mixed size suits the older brick houses in Sandleheath. Limestone and travertine give a flatter, paler surface. Granite is dense and the best choice for a step tread. None is calibrated, so each piece is bedded to its own thickness.
Porcelain. Calibrated to a single thickness, almost no absorption and available in slip rated finishes. On a shaded terrace behind a tall hedge it stays clean and grippy where a porous stone would go green within a season.
Falls, levels and drainage. A fall away from the house, a finished level at least two courses below the damp proof course, and somewhere for the runoff to go. Usually an ACO channel to a gully, or a permeable build up over a stone reservoir feeding a soakaway.
Edges, steps and retaining. Haunched edging or a kerb to hold the outer course, a retaining edge with a coping where a bank or a border sits above the paving, and steps on a full bed with an overhang so water drips clear of the riser.
Jointing and repairs. A resin grout brushed into damp joints, or hand pointing in mortar where the work meets old brick. We also lift and relay sunk and rocking flags, cut out cracked ones, repoint washed out joints, and deal with staining, efflorescence and a slippery green surface.
How it runs
Laying a patio behind a Sandleheath cottage or semi
Thomas looks at the Sandleheath garden: how it falls, where the damp proof course is on the house, where rain goes now, and how materials will get in. The written quote itemises excavation and muck away, sub-base, falls and drainage, edgings and steps, the slabs, and the pointing. Thomas keeps you informed while it is dug and laid.
On older Sandleheath cottages and terraces the only way to the back is often through a side gate or the house, so boards go down over floors, lawns and paths first, and everything is barrowed. The dig is covered if rain is due, the garden swept each day, and spoil and old slabs go with us. If the dig uncovers an old concrete base, a drain or roots where the patio goes, we photograph it and give you a price, and nothing changes until you agree.
New Forest District Council is the planning authority. There is no conservation area in Sandleheath and only a couple of listed entries, so paving at ground level is normally permitted development and the material is your choice. A retaining wall or raised terrace is not automatic, and the height limits on garden walls are worth reading before a slope is built up. Building control can take an interest where ground levels or drainage around the house are being changed.
Cost
What goes into the cost of a patio on these older plots
A Sandleheath patio has no rate per square metre. The paving you pick is usually the smallest part of what you pay. Getting in. A cottage with a barrow-width path, a post-war semi with a side gate and a later detached house with a drive to the back vary in how much can be done by machine. Where every slab and every bag of spoil has to be carried by hand, the labour goes up.
Clearing the ground. Whatever is there has to go first: a cracked concrete base, an old rockery, stumps and roots, or years of builders' rubble under an older Sandleheath garden. That is charged by the skip or grab load, not by area, and it is often more than people expect.
Levels and the damp course. The patio has to fall away from the house and finish two courses below the damp proof course. On an old cottage with a low or missing damp course, that can mean digging down, adding a step, or a channel drain along the wall.
The bed and joints. A full mortar bed on a compacted sub-base lasts. Slabs on dabs rock. Natural stone and porcelain need different jointing.
Ask any quote how deep the dig is, what sub-base is specified, whether the slabs are on a full bed, and where the water goes.
If it has become a hazard
Slabs rocking, a step gone or a patio holding water
Ring rather than use the form if a slab has lifted at one corner, a step has dropped, or the patio is slippery with algae in the shade. Mark or cover the loose area.
Where an old terrace has settled into a dip that holds rain by the back door, deal with it soon, because that water ends up in the wall. The first visit lifts and relays the worst of it and checks whether the base under the rest has gone, then the full job is priced. Booked work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. For something urgent phone, and if you get no answer, we will ring you back as soon as we are able.
Worth knowing
A hundred years of buildings under the garden
If your house in Sandleheath is one of the older ones, the garden behind it has had a long time to accumulate things, and a plot of that age is rarely simple ground.
What we turn up is fairly predictable. A brick or cobbled yard under six inches of soil. The footings of an outhouse or a wash house demolished decades ago. A concrete slab from a shed. Ash and clinker spread as hardcore. Sometimes a filled soakaway or an old drain run nobody has a record of.
None of that stops a patio. It changes two numbers: how deep the dig goes and how much spoil leaves, and old brick and concrete weigh far more than soil. So we dig the trial hole before the quote is written and put the excavation and the muck away on their own lines. It is also why we would rather find an old drain with a spade than a breaker.
Who you are dealing with
Who lays patios in Sandleheath and Damerham
We lay patios across Sandleheath, Alderholt, Damerham and the lanes towards the river, broadly SP6, under New Forest District Council. Sandleheath lies 14 miles from Boscombe, where our base is on Wolverton Road.
Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd is the company, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, and Thomas Hannen is its owner. He comes out, checks your levels and prices the patio himself. A verified Checkatrade customer marked us 10 out of 10. We charge nothing for the visit or for the itemised written quote. Old yards and footings turn up at the front too, so a driveway in Sandleheath gets a hole dug before it is priced. Before you book a visit in Sandleheath, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Sandleheath?
Most repairs in Sandleheath 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 Sandleheath |
|---|---|
| Who decides | New Forest District Council is the planning authority for Sandleheath. The National Park boundary runs close by, and the Park's property map shows which side an address falls. |
| Conservation area | None covers Sandleheath, so a like-for-like repair is ordinary maintenance. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, Sandleheath has listed buildings. If yours is one, or stands in the grounds of one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | No National Park or National Landscape covers Sandleheath. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Sandleheath
Can you lay a new patio straight onto an old concrete base?
Sometimes, and it saves a lot of digging when you can. It has to be sound, thick enough, at the right level and falling the right way. If it is thin, cracked or laid on soil it comes out, because a new surface on a failing base fails with it.
What happens if you find an old drain while digging?
We stop and look at it properly. Some are live and have to be protected or diverted, some are long abandoned and get filled and compacted. Either way it goes back to you with a photograph and a price before we carry on.
Does old brick rubble make a good hardcore layer?
Not on its own. Broken brick and ash are ungraded, so they never lock together the way MOT type 1 does, and they leave voids that consolidate later. It comes out and goes away, and graded stone goes back in its place.
Why is the muck away dearer on an old garden?
Because of weight rather than volume. Concrete, brick and ash are far heavier than soil, so the same hole fills a grab lorry sooner. That is why the excavation and the disposal sit on separate lines on the quote.
Will you know what is buried before you start?
Not everything, but the trial hole tells us most of it. That is the whole reason we dig one before quoting rather than pricing off a photograph. Anything genuinely unexpected gets photographed and priced before any more work is done.
Nearby, and next door
Patios near Sandleheath
Nearby places we also cover for patios, with straight-line distances from Sandleheath, and the other trades we offer in Sandleheath itself.
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Get a price written after somebody has dug a hole
Thomas comes out, opens a trial hole where the terrace is going and prices the dig, the muck away, the base, the falls and the jointing in writing. The visit and the quote are free.