Patios in Spetisbury, built through a side gate

Access comes first. In Spetisbury a standard side gate takes a micro digger and a barrow, and where there is no gate we board and sheet a route through the house. Spoil goes by barrow to a skip on the road, or a grab lorry booked to arrive as the dig finishes.

The dig. Turf, topsoil, old concrete, a coal shed base and boundary hedge roots get excavated back to a firm formation. On the sixties and seventies houses in Spetisbury the garden is often part builder's spoil, which digs easily and holds nothing, so we go down until the ground stops moving.

The sub base. MOT type 1 barrowed in and compacted in layers rather than tipped and levelled. It is the part that decides whether the patio is still flat in ten years. A geotextile goes under it where the subgrade is soft.

Porcelain paving. The easiest material to move through a house, because it is thinner and calibrated, so every slab is the same and the bed stays even. Almost no absorption, so it does not stain and stays cleaner on a shaded terrace than stone.

Sandstone, limestone and granite. Riven sandstone suits an older brick terrace. Limestone and travertine are flatter and more even in colour. Granite is dense and good for a step tread. Riven stone is not calibrated, so each slab is bedded to its own thickness.

Full bed, not dabs. A full wet mortar bed under the whole slab, with a slurry primer on the back of porcelain. Not five dabs, and not a sand screed. A dabbed slab goes hollow and cracks the first time a table leg lands in the middle of it.

Falls and levels. The fall runs away from the house and the surface sits at least two courses below the damp proof course, the DPC. Where a Spetisbury garden is higher than the floor that means digging out and holding the ground back rather than paving over it.

Drainage. A linear channel across a low threshold into a gully, or a permeable build up feeding a soakaway at the far end. Runoff has to stay on your ground rather than run into next door's, which matters more on a narrow Spetisbury plot than on an open one.

Edges, steps and retaining. A haunched edging or kerb holds the outer course. Where a border sits above the paving we build a retaining edge with a coping. Steps get a full bed and an overhang so water drips clear of the riser.

Jointing and repairs. Joints get a resin grout you brush in damp, or traditional pointing on riven stone. We also lift and relay: a sunk bay, a rocking flag, a cracked slab, pointing washed out, staining, efflorescence, and a green slippery surface on the shaded side.

The paving is the part you pick out, and it is rarely where most of the money goes. Carrying it in. With no side access, every barrow of soil, every bag of sharp sand and every slab goes through the house. On a Spetisbury mid terrace that adds a great deal of labour compared with a semi that has a gate.

Clearing the ground. An old concrete base, a rockery, a shed base or a stump is broken out and carted away, and that is priced by the load, not the metre.

Machines and skips. A mini digger saves days where it can get in. Where it cannot, the dig is done by hand. The work at height rules barely touch a patio, but the skip and the machine still need safe access.

The damp course and the fall. The finished surface must sit below the damp proof course and drain away from the house. Where the garden rises behind the back wall, a step up or a small retaining wall is often needed.

The stone. Porcelain needs a priming slurry and exact cutting. Natural sandstone varies in thickness and takes longer to bed level. Concrete slabs are quickest.

Ask other quotes what base they use and how deep, whether the slabs go on a full bed, and where the rain will run.

Terraced and semi detached houses are common in Spetisbury, and on that kind of plot the route into the back garden changes a patio job more than anything else. A semi usually has a path down one side, sometimes wide enough for a barrow and sometimes only for a person. A mid terrace has nothing.

That changes the method and the hours on a Spetisbury patio, not whether the work can be done. Everything is hand loaded: the dig out by barrow, the sub base in by barrow, the slabs carried one at a time. A micro digger gets through a standard gate gap, and where it will not, the dig is by hand.

So ask any quote how the spoil is leaving and how the stone is coming in, because that is where two prices for the same patio separate. If the route goes through the house, floors are boarded and covered before anything is carried, and nothing is left in a hallway overnight.

We lay patios in Spetisbury and the Stour villages either side, Sturminster Marshall to the south and Charlton Marshall to the north, all under Dorset Council. Our base in Boscombe is 14.2 miles away. The business is registered in England and Wales as Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Spetisbury, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

It belongs to Thomas Hannen, who comes to see the garden and prices the patio himself. On Checkatrade, a verified customer marked us 10 out of 10. There is no charge for the site visit, and the written quote showing each item is also free. Where a terrace or semi has space at the front, a driveway in Spetisbury is the one job that does not go through the house.

Most repairs in Spetisbury 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.