Patios in West Parley, set below the damp course
A third of the homes here are bungalows, where the back door sits low and the damp proof course, not the slab you like, decides how the terrace is built.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
More than a third of the homes in West Parley are bungalows, and on a bungalow the patio starts at a low threshold with the damp proof course only a couple of courses above it. That one fact decides the level, the drainage and often the whole design of the terrace.
The calls are usually about damp showing along a skirting board, a patio that has been re-laid over an older one until it sits almost level with the doorstep, or sliding doors that now open onto a step nobody wants.
We come out with a laser, find the damp course, measure what the threshold actually is and work out what can be done without burying it. Then it goes into a written itemised quote, with the dig, the base, the drainage, the paving and the jointing on their own lines. The visit and the quote are free.
The work
Terraces off a low threshold, and how they get built
Finding the damp proof course. First job, before anything is priced. Approved Document C expects finished ground to sit around 150mm, two brick courses, below the damp course. On a good many bungalows here previous paving has been laid over previous paving and is now above it, which is exactly why the wall inside is damp.
Level access without burying the wall. Where you want to step straight out onto the patio, the answer is a recessed channel drain across the threshold with a removable grate, the paving set slightly below the channel and a fall running away from the building. It is more work than laying up to the door, and it is the only version that does not trap water at the brickwork.
The dig and the muck away. The old paving, its bedding, any concrete raft and the roots under it all come out. Bungalow gardens usually have decent access, so most of this goes straight to a grab lorry or a skip rather than out by barrow. It leaves with us, and we are registered to carry waste.
Sub base. Geotextile membrane where the ground is soft, then MOT Type 1 in compacted layers rather than one deep lift of hardcore. Getting that right is what stops a slab rocking, and it is the part that never shows up in a photograph.
Bedding. A full wet mortar bed under every slab, with a slurry primer painted onto the back of porcelain and dense stone. Dabs under the corners leave voids, and a void under a slab is where the water sits and the frost works.
Porcelain, sandstone, limestone and granite. Porcelain is dense, barely absorbs water and keeps a grip when textured, which matters on a route from the back door. Sandstone is warm and easy to cut, limestone quieter and more easily marked, granite the hardest wearing. Calibrated slabs are sawn to one thickness and lay quickly.
Steps, edgings and retaining. Where the garden drops away, a step off a proper footing with a bullnose or coping front, and a haunched edging along the border. Anything holding soil back gets a retaining course with a land drain behind it.
Drainage and where it goes. Runoff from the channel goes to a gully or to a soakaway dug well clear of the footings, or the terrace is built permeable with open joints over a free draining base. Surface water is not allowed to end up against the wall, and Approved Document H is the standard drainage is judged against.
Jointing and repairs. Joints brushed in with a two part compound and tooled off. Smaller jobs too: re-bedding a rocking slab, cutting out a cracked one, re-pointing washed out joints, and clearing algae and efflorescence.
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 side of the Stour is Dorset Council rather than BCP. West Parley has no conservation area and only a few listed entries, so a patio behind a bungalow is ordinary permitted development. What is not permitted development is a raised platform more than 300mm above the ground, which catches out level decking and raised terraces on sloping plots, and where an old house or one of those listed buildings is involved listed building consent covers the ground attached to it as well. We check the address before pricing anything raised.
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 detached bungalow with a drive to the side gate, a chalet bungalow where the garden sits higher than the house, and a semi off Christchurch Road with a narrow passage 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. West Parley is under five miles from us, so it is usually a day or two before we can look. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
Why the damp course rules a bungalow patio
On a two storey house the back door sits well above the garden and there is room to play with. On a bungalow, and this is bungalow country, the floor is often barely above outside ground level to begin with. Add a patio laid over the last one, then a top up of bedding sand ten years later, and the finished surface quietly climbs past the damp proof course.
What happens next is predictable. Rain hits the paving, splashes back at the wall and soaks into brickwork that has no barrier above it any more. Inside you get a damp band along the skirting in one room, usually the one behind the patio, and it is blamed on everything except the paving outside.
So on any bungalow here, the honest first question is not which slab you like. It is how far below the damp course the finished level can sit, and whether you need a threshold channel to get the doorway you actually want. Ask anybody quoting to tell you the finished level in millimetres relative to the damp course. If they cannot, they have not measured it.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover West Parley, Parley Cross, Dudsbury and the Christchurch Road side towards Longham, broadly BH22, 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
West Parley questions we get asked
Can I have a patio level with my back door?
You can have the doorway flush, but not by raising the paving to meet it. The way it works is a recessed channel drain across the threshold, the slabs set just below and a fall running away from the building. Level to walk on, not level with the damp course.
What is the right finished level against the wall?
Around 150mm, which is two brick courses, is the figure to work to. Less than that and rain splashing off the slabs starts wetting brickwork above the barrier.
My patio is already too high. Does it all have to come up?
Usually the run nearest the house does, and sometimes that is all. We take up the courses against the wall, drop the level, put a channel in and re-lay. Where the whole terrace has been built up over the years it is a full lift.
Is there any point in a soakaway on this ground?
Often yes, provided it is dug well away from the footings and it is proved with a trial hole first. Surface water in this area is a known issue, so it is worth checking what your own garden will actually take before anybody designs around it.
Can you take a machine down the side of a bungalow?
Most of the time, yes, and that keeps the cost down. A micro digger goes through a 900mm gate. Where there is no side access at all the spoil goes out by barrow and that appears as its own line on the quote.
Nearby, and next door
Patios near West Parley
Patios nearby
Our other trades in West Parley
Everything we do in Ferndown Patios, all areas Every area we cover
Free quote
Get your finished level worked out before you buy paving
Thomas comes out, finds the damp course, measures the threshold and prices the dig, the drainage and the paving in writing. The visit and the quote are free.