Patios in Woodlands
Paving set out around the trees that are already there, rather than through them.
The site visit is free and so is the written itemised quote. Thomas Hannen prices every job himself.
Almost every patio we look at in Woodlands has a tree in the conversation somewhere. Mature oak, beech and conifer sit close to the houses here, and their roots run further out than most people expect, usually right under the flattest part of the garden.
So the calls have a pattern. One area of paving lifted and tilted while the rest sits flat. Joints cracked open in a line. A slab rocking over something solid underneath it. And, because the same trees cast shade, a terrace that stays damp, greens over and gets slippery through the winter.
None of that is fixed by heavier slabs. It is fixed by how the base is built and where the paving is set out. We come out, lift a slab, dig a trial hole to see what is under it and take levels off the house before pricing anything. You get one written itemised quote with the dig, the muck away, the sub base, the paving, the edges and the jointing on separate lines, after a free visit.
The work
Building over roots without killing the tree
Reading the ground first. Before anything is set out we find out where the roots run. A trial hole in two or three places tells us far more than a plan does. Old concrete, sunken flags, brick paviours, a raised bed and made ground all have to come out, and the spoil is loaded to a grab lorry or a skip and leaves with us.
What we will not do. We do not cut a root plate back to make a level. Severing the structural roots of a mature tree destabilises it and often kills it slowly, and the paving is not worth that. Where roots cross the area we raise the build over them, reduce the excavation on that stretch and put the depth back in stone instead.
The sub base. A geotextile separator, then MOT Type 1 in compacted layers of about 100mm. Under trees the ground is threaded with fine root and holds moisture, so the separator earns its place, and the compaction is done in layers rather than one pass over a deep lift.
Porcelain. Calibrated twenty millimetre porcelain is the right answer for a shaded plot. It takes on almost no water, so algae get little grip and there is nothing in the slab for a frost to open. Full bed of mortar over a slurry primed back, never on dabs.
Stone. Sandstone is warm and easy to lay but porous, so under trees it greens and stains from leaf fall. Limestone is more even and marks with iron. Granite is dense and copes well with a damp position. Travertine is a poor choice here. Hand cut stone varies in thickness so the mortar bed levels it; calibrated stone is sawn to one depth.
Falls, levels and drainage. Paving falls away from the building and finishes two courses below the DPC where the garden allows, which is what Approved Document C requires. Water goes to a gully proved to still run, a soakaway where the ground takes it, or a permeable build with an open graded base so the runoff stays on your land, which is also the kinder option for a tree.
Edges and jointing. Edging bedded and haunched in concrete, a coping to any low retaining wall, a kerb line at the lawn and a gravel border along the house. Over a root run we keep the jointing flexible: a brush in compound that can take a little movement rather than rigid hand pointing that cracks in a straight line. Porcelain elsewhere on the terrace takes a grout made for dense units.
Repairs. Lifting and re-bedding slabs that have been pushed up, rebuilding a sunken bay, replacing cracked units, renewing washed out jointing and cleaning a green terrace.
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.
The New Forest National Park Authority is the planning authority here, and Woodlands sits within the Forest North East conservation area, so trees have protection in their own right and work to them needs written notice before anybody starts. The NPA's heritage and conservation pages set out what that means for an address. The paving itself is normally permitted development and is not building control work.
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 1950s bungalow with a wide gate, a detached house set back behind trees, and a cottage with a narrow passage are three different jobs before any paving is chosen. 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. If a slab has been pushed up by a root and somebody is catching a foot on it, we can lift and re-bed that area quickly while the rest is looked at properly. The phone is answered 24 hours for emergencies; scheduled work runs Monday to Friday, 8am to 6pm.
Worth knowing
The roots were here first and they are staying
A mature tree's roots are shallow and wide, not deep and narrow. Most of the structural root sits in the top half metre of soil and spreads out well beyond the canopy, which is why the flat, tempting corner of the garden is so often exactly where they are.
Two things follow. First, a normal patio excavation cuts straight through them, and a tree that loses a significant share of its roots on one side can become unstable long before it looks unwell. Second, roots that survive keep growing, and a rigid paving build sitting directly on them will be lifted and cracked, usually in one clear line rather than all over.
The build that works is a compromise built in deliberately: a shallower dig over the root run with the level made up in compacted stone, a separator between the stone and the soil, a flexible jointing compound rather than a rigid mortar over that stretch, and the seating area itself set slightly away from the trunk where the layout allows. Where the tree is protected, and in a conservation area many are, we design around it as a matter of course rather than asking afterwards.
Who you are dealing with
A local firm you can check
We cover Woodlands, Netley Marsh, Bartley, Ashurst and the villages towards Totton, broadly SO40, under the New Forest National Park 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
Woodlands questions we get asked
Will building a terrace over roots kill the tree?
Yes, if the build is designed for it: less digging over the root run, the level made up in stone, a separator, and joints that can move. What harms a tree is excavating through the structural roots.
One section of my patio has lifted and the rest is fine. Why?
That is the signature of a root under it. The lift is local and usually runs in a line. It can be taken up and rebuilt over the root rather than the whole terrace being replaced.
Do I need permission to cut a tree back before the work?
Very possibly. Trees in a conservation area are protected and work to them needs written notice first. We check before the dig is booked, not after.
Which paving handles constant leaf fall best?
Porcelain. Leaf tannins stain porous stone and the debris feeds algae in open joints. A dense slab with full joints sweeps clean.
Will a permeable patio help the tree?
It does help. Water and air still reach the root zone instead of everything being sealed off, and the rain stays on your ground rather than running off it.
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Design the patio around the trees you want to keep
Thomas comes out, opens a trial hole, finds where the roots run and prices the work in writing. The visit and the quote are free.