Patios in Stone
On the older walls around here there is no damp proof course to measure down from, so what goes against the wall matters as much as what you walk on.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A patio against a pre-Victorian wall cannot be set two courses below a damp proof course, because there is not one. Keeping the level low and leaving a free draining gravel margin against the brickwork is what keeps the wall dry instead.
Two jobs make up most of what we look at here. A square of old flags that has settled, rocks underfoot and now sends water back towards the building. And a damp band inside a ground floor room that turns out to be a patio laid tight against a wall that was never meant to have one.
Neither is solved by better slabs. We come out, look at the wall as well as the ground, take a survey of the levels, and price the dig, the base, the margin against the wall, the drainage and the paving on separate lines in a written itemised quote. The site visit and the quote are free.
The work
Paving up to a wall with no damp course
Finding out what the wall is. Before anything is measured we look at the wall the paving will sit against. A cavity wall built after the war has a damp proof course you can see and work to. A solid wall from the 1800s very often has none at all, and that single difference decides how the whole patio is detailed.
Setting the level. Where there is a damp course we chalk the DPC on the brickwork and finish two courses below it. Where there is not, the rule becomes keep the paving as low as the threshold allows, never let it bridge up the face of the wall, and give the wall somewhere to breathe rather than sealing it in.
The gravel margin. Against an old wall we leave a shingle border, two hundred millimetres or so wide, on a free draining bed rather than running mortar bedded slabs right up to the brick. Splashback lands in the gravel instead of on the wall, water drains straight down instead of tracking sideways, and the wall stays a great deal drier.
The dig and what leaves. Old concrete, flags bedded on sand, roots and, near the older buildings, made ground with rubble in it. It is excavated to formation and taken away. Access varies from open to awkward, so the quote says whether spoil goes by barrow through a side gate or by machinery into a skip.
Base and bed. Geotextile membrane, MOT Type 1 hardcore compacted in layers, a sharp sand screed, then a full bed of mortar under every slab with a slurry primer on the back. A proper mortar bed does not go hollow. Dabs do, and a hollow slab ends up rocking, cracked and holding water.
The paving. Riven sandstone and a soft buff limestone sit comfortably next to old brick and rubble stone. Porcelain is calibrated, takes almost no water and is easiest to keep clean. Granite is dense and dark, and travertine holds water, which we would steer you away from in a shaded yard.
Edges, steps and water. A haunched kerb or an edging in concrete holds the perimeter, a coping caps anything retaining, and the fall runs off the house into an ACO channel, an existing gully or a soakaway set clear of the footings. Where the runoff has nowhere to go, a permeable build up takes it through the joints instead.
Jointing, and the paving you have now. Joints take a brush in resin compound, a grout slurry or hand pointing in mortar. If a patio has only lifted or sunk in one bay, or gone slippery with algae and shown efflorescence and staining, we quote the clean, the re-joint or the lift and relay rather than a rebuild you do not need.
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 ordinarily permitted development and planning permission is rarely needed; the government guidance on when permission is required sets out where that stops. There is no conservation area over this settlement, but the parish carries a great many listed entries, and work in the grounds of a listed building needs listed building consent from Dorset Council. Garden and retaining walls have their own height limits under the rules on garden walls, and the level against the house is building control, from Approved Document C.
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 farm cottage with a gate you can barely get a barrow through, a modern house with room for machinery and a skip, and a terrace where everything crosses the kitchen floor are three different jobs. 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 eight miles away, so a slab that has dropped at a doorway or water running back to a wall usually gets 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
Older walls here have no damp proof course
Around a fifth of the housing in this part of the parish predates 1919, and the listed entries hereabouts are concentrated on the older Pamphill side rather than in the newer housing. On any of those older buildings there is one thing worth knowing before you pave.
Damp proof courses did not become normal until the end of the nineteenth century. A solid brick or stone wall built before that has no membrane in it, and it stays dry by letting moisture out through its own face. That means the usual instruction, finish two courses below the damp proof course, has nothing to measure from. Worse, a mortar bedded patio hard against that wall seals the bottom of it and pushes the moisture inwards instead.
So on an old wall the detail changes. Keep the finished paving low. Leave a free draining gravel margin against the brickwork so splashback and rainfall drop away rather than soak in. Fall the surface off the building, not along it. If you are getting a patio quoted against a pre-Victorian wall, ask what is going against the wall itself.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Stone, Pamphill, Cowgrove and the lanes towards Wimborne, broadly BH21, 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
Stone questions we get asked
How do I know whether my wall has a damp proof course?
Look for a thin dark line of slate or bitumen in a mortar joint two or three courses above the ground. If you cannot find one and the house is Victorian or older, assume there is none and detail the patio accordingly. We check it on the visit.
Why leave a gravel strip instead of paving right up to the wall?
Because rain bouncing off a hard surface soaks the same band of brick every storm, and a mortar bed against an old wall stops it drying. Loose shingle on a free draining bed lets the splash fall away and lets the wall breathe.
Could the paving be the reason my wall is wet?
Very often it is the cause rather than a coincidence. Paving that sits too high, or that falls back towards the wall, keeps the base of the brickwork wet all winter. Lowering the level and adding a gravel margin dries a lot of walls out without any other work.
Which paving suits an older brick or stone building?
Riven sandstone and a buff limestone weather in and look as though they have always been there. Porcelain is calibrated and much easier to keep, which wins in a modern setting or a shaded yard where stone would green up.
Do older walls slow the work down?
A little, because the detail against them is fussier and worth taking care over. People ask how long overall: a straightforward rear patio is about a week, and a drainage channel, steps or a retaining wall take it to ten days while footings cure.
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Get the wall detail right, not just the paving
Thomas comes out, looks at the wall as well as the ground, takes the levels and prices it in writing. The visit and the quote are free.