Patios in Walhampton and Portmore, shared terraces
Several doors onto one terrace, each at its own height, and a set of falls that has to work for every one of them.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
A lot of the housing around Walhampton and Portmore sits in converted houses and small blocks rather than standing on its own, so the terrace at the back is often shared. Several doors open onto it at different heights, and that turns a patio into a levels job before it is a paving job.
Three calls come up again and again. A shared terrace that has settled into a dip and holds water outside somebody's door. A private garden where the slabs rock and the joints have washed out. And a new sitting out area on ground that falls the wrong way, towards the building instead of away from it.
We come and take levels off every threshold before pricing anything, because on a shared terrace the falls have to work for all of them at once. Then you get a written itemised quote with the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the steps, the edgings, the slabs, the drainage and the jointing on separate lines. The visit and the quote are free.
What we do here
Terraces, steps and the levels between doors
Opening it up. Old paving comes off first and the ground is excavated to a firm formation. Under a shared terrace there is usually more than anyone expects: a bed of old concrete, buried steps, a run of services and a good depth of made ground. Roots, spoil and broken slab all get taken away, and the muck away is priced by what leaves.
The sub base. MOT Type 1 goes back in and is whacked in thin lifts to full compaction, carried out past the edge of the paving so nothing breaks away at the perimeter. On the soft, wet ground down towards the river a geotextile separator underneath stops the hardcore vanishing into the subsoil.
Bedded, not dabbed. Slabs go down on a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back. Dabs leave voids, voids hold water, and on a terrace people walk across every day the rocking starts within a couple of winters.
What we lay. Porcelain is calibrated, even in thickness and unaffected by frost or staining, and a textured grade stays safe underfoot on a shared route. Sandstone is warmer and riven, so each slab is bedded to its own thickness. Limestone is quieter in colour. Granite is the toughest of them and the slowest to cut. Travertine is a sun trap material rather than a shaded one.
Doors, thresholds and the damp course. Every door needs paving falling away from it and finishing at least two courses below the DPC. Where one threshold is lower than the rest, that door gets a channel and its own outfall rather than the whole terrace being dropped. Approved Document C is the reference for the level.
Steps and retaining. Where doors sit at different heights the terrace is split into levels with steps between them, risers kept equal, treads generous, and a retaining edge or low wall with coping holding the change. A haunched edging or kerb finishes it where the paving meets grass or a border.
Drainage. On a shared terrace the water has to be designed rather than hoped for. That is usually a channel to a gully with a real outfall, and where the ground will take it a soakaway well clear of the buildings. A permeable build up over open graded stone is worth pricing where the runoff has nowhere obvious to go.
Jointing, and putting faults right. Joints get a brush in compound worked wet and tooled off, or hand pointing where an old stone terrace deserves it. The repairs are the usual list: a lifted corner, a sunk bay, slabs rocking on hollow beds, cracked stone, algae on the shaded side, efflorescence on new sandstone and staining under a downpipe.
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.
This is inside the National Park and inside the Forest South East conservation area, so appearance is looked at in a way it is not a few miles away, and there are 93 listed entries nearby. Ground level paving in a back garden is normally permitted development and needs no planning permission, while a raised terrace may. The park authority keeps the heritage and conservation guidance.
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 converted house with a shared rear terrace, a detached property with a wide side gate, and a cottage reached only through the hall 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. On a shared terrace tell us which door the water is standing outside, because that is usually where the level has gone. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
The local part
When the terrace serves more than one front door
Around a third of the homes here are flats, most of them in converted houses and small blocks set in their own grounds. That produces a particular kind of patio: a single terrace at the back with three or four doors opening onto it, each one built at whatever height suited the room behind it, and a set of falls that have to satisfy all of them at once.
It cannot be solved by tipping the whole slab one way. Fall it towards the lowest door and you flood that door. Fall it away from the building along its length and the water simply runs to the far end and stands there. What works is splitting the terrace into levels, giving each door its own short fall to a channel, and running those channels to one outfall.
The other thing worth sorting early is who is paying and who decides. Where the terrace is common ground, the freeholder or the management company is the one who signs, not the person whose door it is outside. We write the quote itemised so it can be circulated and understood by people who are not standing in the garden with us.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Walhampton, Portmore, Pilley and the lanes around Boldre, broadly SO41, with the New Forest National Park Authority as planning authority. 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
Walhampton and Portmore questions we get asked
Who has to agree the work when the terrace is shared?
The freeholder or the managing agent, because the terrace is usually common ground rather than part of anybody's demise. We write the quote itemised so it can be sent round and understood by people who were not on site when we measured.
Can one terrace fall correctly for three doors at different heights?
Not as one plane. It is split into levels with steps between them, and each door gets its own short fall into a channel. The channels then run to one outfall. Trying to do it in a single slope is why so many of them pond.
Will you work in the National Park without upsetting the planners?
Ground level paving in a back garden is ordinarily permitted development, so most patios need nothing. Where it is raised, attached to a listed building or clearly visible, we say so at the quote stage rather than after the dig has started.
Can a digger get down to the garden here?
Sometimes. Where there is a track or a wide gate we bring a micro digger and the job speeds up considerably. Where there is not, it is barrows and hand digging, and the quote shows that as its own line instead of hiding it in a rate.
Is textured porcelain worth it on a route people use every day?
On a shared terrace, yes. A textured grade keeps its grip when it is wet and it does not take up water, so it does not go slippery in the way a smooth stone does. It costs more than a riven sandstone and it is the safer surface.
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Get the levels sorted before the slabs are ordered
Thomas comes out, takes levels off every threshold and prices the steps, the drainage and the paving in writing. The visit and the quote are free.