Patios & Paving
Patios and paving across Devon, laid on a full mortar bed with the falls and the levels right, so they stay flat and they drain.
Patios and paving across Devon, laid on a full mortar bed with the falls and the levels right, so they stay flat and they drain.
Where it goes wrong
Four things go wrong with patios. All four happen underground.
A patio almost never looks wrong the day it is finished. It looks wrong three winters later, and by then whatever caused it is buried under two tonnes of stone.
Here is what actually fails, in the order it usually happens.
If you are getting patio quotes, ask about these four. The answers will tell you more than the price does.
One
The bed
The quick way to lay a slab is what the trade calls dot and dab. Five blobs of mortar under each corner and the middle, press it down, move on.
It is faster, it uses a fraction of the material, and it leaves most of the underside of every slab resting on fresh air. Stand on an unsupported corner and it cracks. Let water into the voids and the first hard frost lifts it.
Dot and dab
Five blobs per slab. Quick, cheap in material, and most of the slab is unsupported. It is the single most common reason a patio fails early.
Full wet bed
The whole underside in contact with mortar, on a sub base dug out and compacted properly. Slower, dearer, and no voids left under the slab.
We lay on a full wet bed. It is not a selling point so much as the actual job.
Two
The fall
A patio has to slope away from the house. Not enough and water sits in a puddle in the same spot every time it rains. Too much and you feel it underfoot and the table never sits level.
It is a small number, set on the first day, and it cannot be corrected afterwards without lifting the lot.
Three
The damp course
This is the expensive one.
Every house has a damp proof course, a barrier built into the wall to stop damp rising into the building. Lay a patio too high against the wall and you bridge it. Water then has a route into your house, and it will find it.
Graham came to landscaping from the building trade. Damp courses and levels were not things he had to learn for gardens. They are things he has worked to since he was fifteen.
Four
The joints
The joints fail first and show most, so how they are finished matters more than people expect.
A brush in compound for most paving. Sand and cement pointing where the stone calls for it. On some stonework, nothing at all, where a dry laid finish is what the customer wants and the material will carry it.
What we will not do is pick the fastest option and hope.
Materials
Porcelain is a different job to sandstone
Worth knowing if porcelain is on your list. It barely absorbs anything, which is exactly why it stays clean and never goes green. It also means it will not bond to a standard mortar bed without a primer painted onto the back of every single slab.
Skip that step and slabs can start lifting within a couple of years. It is one of the most common failures on newer patios, and priming the underside is how we avoid it.
We also lay natural stone, block paving and setts. If you know what you want, we will lay it. If you do not, we will talk you through what suits the house, which way the garden faces, and how much upkeep you want to be doing in five years.
Repairs
Existing patios as well as new ones
Sunken slabs, failed pointing, drainage that never worked.
We will also tell you honestly which job you have got. If the base is sound and the same stone can be lifted and relaid, that is the cheaper job and we will say so. If the base was never right and it has been moving for years, patching it is money spent twice, and we will say that too.
What it costs
No price list, and here is why
A patio price depends on what is under it. The same size patio is a straightforward job on firm ground and a much bigger one on clay that needs digging out and drainage putting in. Anyone quoting from a photograph is guessing.
So we come and look, at no charge and with no obligation. You get a written quote with the work set out and a price that does not move. If something unexpected comes out of the ground, and occasionally it does, we stop and tell you before we do anything about it.
Want a price for your garden?
We come out, look at the space and give you a written quote. No charge and no obligation.
Peace of mind
Guaranteed work
Our workmanship is guaranteed, with the terms set out in writing in your quote before anything starts. Materials carry their own manufacturer guarantees and we pass those on to you in full.
More of what we do
Our other services
Garden Design & Landscaping
A plan first, then the whole build, so the finished garden holds together as one piece of work.
Stonework & Walls
Retaining walls, raised beds and steps, built in stone that suits the house.
Driveways & Paths
Solid ground underneath and a surface that copes with a Devon winter.
Fencing & Gates
Posts set properly and timber that lasts, not something that leans after one gale.
Bespoke Garden Features
Pergolas, raised beds, terracing and lawns, built to the same standard as everything underneath them.