Patios in Wareham

Taking layers off. A lot of the work in Wareham starts by removing what previous owners added. Old paving, concrete and made ground get excavated back to a firm formation and to a sensible height, and the spoil goes out by skip or grab lorry, priced by the load. On the town streets that is barrow work through a passage, which belongs on the quote as its own line.

Base and bedding. Compacted hardcore, MOT type 1, in layers, then a full wet mortar bed with a slurry primer on the back of each slab. Not five dabs, and not a screeded sand bed. On ground that gets wet, a void under a slab is a reservoir and the frost does the rest.

Falls and the damp proof course. The surface falls away from the house and stops at least two courses below the DPC. Where a threshold sits low, a channel along the wall takes the water at the door rather than the paving being lifted to meet it. In a town where the ground is already low, that discipline matters more than anywhere.

Drainage that has somewhere to go. A channel drain at the low end into a gully, a soakaway only where a hole has proved the ground will take one, and a permeable border where the soil drains. Water has to be dealt with on your own land, and in a walled Wareham garden with neighbours either side that is not a formality.

Old walls. The back gardens in Wareham are often enclosed by old brick or stone. Paving laid tight against the foot of a wall like that traps damp in it and blows the bricks in a hard frost, so we keep a gravel margin along the base and let it breathe.

Materials. Riven sandstone and limestone sit well behind Wareham's period frontages and are uncalibrated, so each flag is bedded to its own thickness. Granite is the hardest, travertine the softest. Porcelain is calibrated, takes up no water and comes with a published slip rating, which counts on a terrace that stays damp.

Steps, edges and jointing. Steps of a consistent rise, a haunched kerb or a retaining course with a coping to hold the outer row, and joints brushed in with a two part compound rather than sand or a bagged grout, or hand pointed in a softer mix against old work.

Repairs. Sunk, rocking and lifted flags, a cracked step, moss and algae in a shaded walled garden, efflorescence and iron staining on new stone.

Most of what you pay for on a patio never shows once it is laid. Carrying. Behind a house on North Street with a passage through, or a cottage sharing a yard, every slab comes in by hand and every barrow of spoil goes out the same way. A bungalow with double gates takes a mini digger and a dumper. That difference alone can outweigh the stone you pick.

The dig. Old concrete, a raised bed, tree roots or made ground are dug out and taken away by the load, not by the metre, and nobody knows the full depth until a test hole is in.

The step down. The finished paving must sit well below your damp proof course, with a gentle fall away from the house. Older houses in town often have floors close to garden level, so meeting that can mean a step, a retaining edge or a channel drain along the wall, and each one is priced.

Wet ground. Near the rivers the ground is alluvium that stays wet all winter and a lawn can hold water for days, while in the town itself it is mostly sand. A deeper bed of crushed stone under the slabs, a full wet mortar bed instead of dabs, and a fall to somewhere that really drains all cost more and last longer.

Any other quote should answer how deep the dig is, whether the slabs are on a full bed or on dabs, and where the water goes.

We lay patios in the town inside the walls, Stoborough, Northport, Sandford and out to Ridge, broadly BH20, under Dorset Council and 12.5 miles from our base in Boscombe. Our company name is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company number 15471719. Before you book a visit in Wareham, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Thomas Hannen owns and runs it, and he takes the levels and works out the price at your house himself. A verified Checkatrade customer gave us a 10 out of 10. The visit costs you nothing, nor does the itemised quote he writes up afterwards. Raising a front drive causes the same water trouble, and a driveway in Wareham is kept low and drained for the same reason.

Most repairs in Wareham 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.