Patios in West Moors

The damp proof course is found first. On a West Moors bungalow it is usually one or two brick courses above the ground and sometimes less, so the first thing we do is scrape the soil back, find it and chalk the DPC on the brickwork.

The finished paving sits at least two courses below that line. On plenty of the properties in West Moors the old flags are already level with it, which is why the wall behind them is dark and the skirting smells of damp in February.

Lifting what is there. Concrete flags on sand, a slab poured for a greenhouse, a crazy paved path from the sixties. Most lifts by hand and goes out by barrow. Anything reinforced needs breaking, and spoil is priced by the load that leaves.

The dig, and getting the depth back. To finish lower than you started the ground has to come out further than most people expect: excavate to formation, then build back up with sub base and bed. That is why a West Moors patio at the right level costs more than one laid on top of the old one, and it is the difference between a dry wall and a damp one.

Base and bed. A geotextile membrane, MOT Type 1 hardcore compacted in layers, a screed of sharp sand to level it, then a full bed of mortar under the whole slab with a slurry primer on the back. Not five dabs. A slab on dabs is hollow underneath, and a hollow slab ends up rocking, cracked and holding water. It is the commonest fault in paving of this age, and a proper mortar bed is the cure.

The paving. Porcelain is calibrated, so the thickness never varies and the joints stay even across a wide open area; it also stays clean where a West Moors bungalow throws shade close to the ground. Indian sandstone is hand cut and warmer, limestone and granite wear harder, and travertine holds water, which matters more on a low patio than a high one.

Thresholds, edges and channel drains. To walk straight out of a patio door without a step, the answer is a recessed ACO channel along the threshold rather than a raised patio. Open edges get a haunched kerb and a coping, and a shingle border runs along the wall. Where a step is unavoidable we set it at a comfortable rise.

Where the water ends up. The fall runs off the house into the channel, an existing gully or a soakaway clear of the foundations. Where the runoff has nowhere to go we build permeable, a different sub base rather than a different slab.

Jointing and keeping it clean. Joints take a brush in resin compound, a grout slurry or hand pointing in mortar, so nothing washes out and weeds get no start. Efflorescence, the white bloom on new stone, is salts drying out of the bed and it weathers off. Algae and staining are different: they are shade and damp, and that is why the falls matter.

The slabs are the part you choose, and usually the smaller share of what you pay. The threshold problem. A bungalow floor often sits only a little above the garden.

On a West Moors plot the paving has to finish well below the damp proof course and still fall away from the house, so the dig beside the wall goes deeper, and the patio may need a step down, a small retaining edge or a slot drain along the back wall. That is where most of the thinking and some of the cost goes.

What comes out. Old concrete paths, the original flags, a rockery or roots from the garden trees are dug out and removed by the load. Until the first test hole is in, nobody knows how much.

The base. Where the ground is clay it stays wet and moves with the seasons, so a deeper bed of compacted stone and a full wet mortar bed under each slab, rather than a few dabs, keep it level. It costs more and lasts.

Getting in. A wide side path and a plot a small digger can reach is quicker than a chalet where every bag and slab is carried through the kitchen.

Ask anyone else how they will deal with the level at your back door, how deep the base is, and whether the slabs go on a full bed.

We lay patios in West Moors village, Station Road, Pinehurst, Moorlands and out towards Ferndown, broadly BH22, under Dorset Council. We are based in Boscombe, 7.1 miles south.

Our registered company is Bournemouth Roofing & Building Ltd, England and Wales, company number 15471719, run by its owner Thomas Hannen, who takes the levels at your door and prices the patio in person. On Checkatrade, one verified customer's score for us is 10 out of 10. There is no cost for the site visit or for the written quote, which lists every item. A bungalow front door has the same shallow step, and driveways in West Moors are dug down to it, never raised. Before you book a visit in West Moors, you can read our customers' Google reviews, word for word, on our reviews page.

Most repairs in West Moors 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.