Patios in Swanage
Gardens here climb, so a patio in Swanage is usually a terrace: a level platform cut into a slope, held at the front and drained at the back.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
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A patio on a Swanage hillside is a small piece of ground engineering with a nice surface on it. The retaining edge, the steps and the drainage decide whether it is still level in ten years, and the slab you choose is the last decision, not the first.
Hillside gardens in Swanage tend to need flags relaid, a green terrace sorted or a level made. Concrete flags at the top of a garden that have settled and now rock underfoot. A shaded terrace behind a Victorian villa gone green and slippery. And a back door opening onto ground that climbs away, where somebody wants somewhere flat to put a table.
None of those is a paving problem on its own. We come out to Swanage, take levels off the house, work out how much ground has to move and where the water will go, then price the dig, the base, the retaining and the paving on separate lines in a written itemised quote. The site visit and the quote are free.
The work
Terraces cut into a Swanage garden
Levels first, paving last. Every job starts with a laser level and a survey, not a brochure. We chalk the DPC on the brickwork, mark the finished height two courses below it and work down the garden to see what comes out and what has to be held up. On a Swanage slope that hour decides whether you are buying a patio or a patio plus a retaining wall.
The dig and the muck away. Old concrete, cracked flags bedded on sand, tree roots and, on the older Swanage properties, a depth of made ground with rubble through it. It is excavated to formation and leaves the site, by barrow rather than machinery where access is a terraced garden. Spoil is priced by the load into a skip, so we say what is coming out before we start.
Sub base and bedding. A geotextile membrane over the formation, MOT Type 1 hardcore compacted in layers rather than tipped in one, a sharp sand screed to level it, then a full bed of mortar under each slab with a slurry primer on the back. Five dabs is faster, but a full mortar bed is what stops a slab going hollow, rocking and cracking two winters later.
The paving itself. Porcelain is calibrated, so every slab is the same thickness and the joints stay honest, and it takes on almost no dirt. Indian sandstone is hand cut and wants a thicker bed. Limestone and granite suit the grey stone walls around Swanage, and travertine looks beautiful and stays wet.
Retaining edges, steps and coping. A terrace needs holding, and that means a retaining wall on a footing rather than an edging kerb haunched in concrete. We cap it with a coping that throws water clear, hold open edges with a haunched kerb, and set the steps at a rise you can walk in the dark. A gravel border along the house keeps splashback off the wall, and the threshold is detailed so nothing washes back to the door.
Where the water goes. The fall runs away from the house at about one in eighty, into an ACO channel, an existing gully or a soakaway well clear of the foundations. A permeable build up is the option where there is nowhere to put the runoff.
Jointing, and the patio you already have. Joints get a brush in resin compound, a grout slurry or hand pointing in mortar, never loose sand. If your paving has lifted, sunk or shown efflorescence and staining we say honestly whether it is a lift and relay or a rebuild. Laying new slabs over old flags raises the level towards the damp proof course, and that is the one shortcut we will not take.
How it runs
Building a level patio into a garden on a slope
Many gardens in Swanage climb or fall away from the house, so the first questions are where the level goes and where the water goes. Tell us that, and whether the garden is only reached through the house. Thomas comes out, takes levels against the damp proof course and prices it himself. Thomas is your contact through the dig, the sub-base and the laying.
The quote lists excavation and muck away, the sub-base, the falls and drainage, any retaining edge or steps, edgings, the slabs, and the jointing. Where the only way into a Swanage garden is through the hall or a side passage, floors are sheeted, slabs are carried in by hand and spoil goes out in bags. Everything is left safe to walk on each evening. If we hit an old drain, tree roots or made ground, you are sent a picture and a figure and we wait for your answer.
A patio at ground level is normally permitted development. Raise it into a platform, or build a retaining wall over a metre high beside a road, and that changes; the rules on garden walls show where the line falls. On a listed house, work in the grounds can need listed building consent from Dorset Council. Paving a garden is not building control work, though finishing two courses below the damp proof course is good practice drawn from Approved Document C.
Cost
What drives the cost of a patio in a hillside garden
The slabs are the part you choose and usually the smallest part of the price. The garden decides the rest.
Carrying it in. A terraced garden behind a Swanage town house, a bungalow on flatter ground near the beach, and a villa where the only way in is through the kitchen are different jobs before a slab is cut. Every bag of sub-base and every slab carried by hand adds hours, and work at height rules apply where a terrace edge drops away.
Cut and fill. On a sloping plot in Swanage, a level patio means digging into the bank on one side and building up or retaining on the other. A retaining edge, steps down to the lawn and drainage behind the wall are where the price moves most.
What comes out first. An old concrete slab, a raised bed or roots have to be broken out and taken away, and that is priced by the load.
Falls and the damp course. The patio must fall away from the house and finish below the damp proof course. Getting that wrong against a wall is the costliest mistake on this job, because it puts water into the house and the whole patio has to come up to cure it.
Ask other quotes how deep they dig, whether the slabs go on a full mortar bed or on dabs, and where the surface water is sent.
If it has become a hazard
Slabs that have lifted or turned slippery
A slab lifted at one corner, a step that has dropped, or a north facing terrace gone green and greasy above a drop is a hazard, so ring us instead of using the form.
We lift and re-bed the worst of it or mark it off, clean a slippery route if that is the problem on the first visit, and look at whether the base under the rest has gone soft. The full repair is priced after that. Planned work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm. If somebody could fall, call us, and if you cannot get through we will ring you back as soon as we can.
Worth knowing
Almost every garden here is on a slope
Swanage sits in a bowl. The ground climbs from the bay to the ridge on one side and to Durlston on the other, and a great many back gardens go up rather than out. That one fact changes a patio here more than anything else about the town.
On level ground a patio is a bed and a surface. On a slope it is a platform, and a platform has to be held at the front and cut in at the back. That means a wall on a footing, a set of steps, a coping to shed water, and a drain behind the terrace so the garden above is not emptying itself onto your paving. Roughly a fifth of the housing in Swanage predates 1900, and on those villas the ground has often been terraced once already, in stone, by somebody who knew what they were doing. Where that old wall is sound we build off it rather than take it out.
So look for the retaining and the drainage on any quote. Square metres of paving on a sloping garden is not a price for the job you are buying.
Who you are dealing with
Patios for the seafront, Herston and New Swanage
Our base at 80a Wolverton Road, Boscombe, is 10 miles from Swanage, and we build patios across the town centre and seafront, Herston, New Swanage and out towards Durlston, all within Dorset Council. Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719, is the firm behind this page. Before you book a visit in Swanage, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.
It is owned by Thomas Hannen, who comes to see the garden and prices the patio himself. On Checkatrade, a verified customer rated us 10 out of 10. We visit for free, and the itemised quote in writing is free too. A drive on a hillside needs holding just like a terrace, and driveways in Swanage are priced as groundwork for the same reason.
Planning at a glance
Do you need planning permission in Swanage?
Most repairs in Swanage 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 Swanage |
|---|---|
| Who decides | Dorset Council is the planning authority for Swanage. Dorset Council's heritage pages set out what it controls. |
| Conservation area | Yes: Swanage Conservation Area. Check whether your street is inside the boundary before changing anything visible. |
| Listed buildings | Yes, there are listed buildings in and around Swanage. If yours is one, work can need listed building consent. |
| Protected landscape | Inside the Dorset National Landscape (formerly AONB), so anything visible from outside gets more attention. |
Questions
Questions about patios in Swanage
Is a raised terrace treated differently from flat paving?
Yes, a raised terrace is treated differently from flat paving. Paving at ground level in a back garden is almost never a planning matter. Lifting it into a platform, building a tall wall beside a road, or working on a listed house or in a conservation area all are. We tell you which before we quote.
My garden slopes steeply. Can I still have a level patio?
Yes, and it is the usual answer here. The ground is cut into at the back and built up at the front, the front edge is held by a wall on a footing, and steps take you up to the rest of the garden.
Why do my existing slabs rock when I stand on them?
Because they were bedded on dabs of mortar or on sand, not a full bed. The slab bridges the gaps, water gets underneath and frost does the rest. Relaying on a full bed fixes it if the sub base below is sound.
Which paving copes best with a shaded, damp corner?
Porcelain, by a distance: it takes on almost no water, so algae has nothing to sit in and a brush and warm water lifts what does grow. Sandstone and limestone will green up on a shaded side and want cleaning once a year.
Can you lay local Purbeck stone?
We can, and on an older house it looks right in a way nothing else manages. It is heavier and less consistent in thickness than a calibrated porcelain slab, so the bed is worked slab by slab. In time, a simple terrace is a week, ten days or more with retaining and steps.
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Find out what your slope actually needs
Thomas comes out, takes the levels, works out the cut and fill and prices the retaining, the base and the paving in writing. The visit and the quote are free.