Whole gardens, not just a patio
Most of our Hertfordshire work is a garden that has been left alone for twenty years: a sunken concrete slab, a rotten fence, a lawn that puddles all winter. We strip it back, re-set the levels, sort the drainage, then build the patio, beds, decking and fencing as one job so the finished garden actually works as a whole.
What goes under the surface
A porcelain patio is only as good as what is beneath it. We dig out to a firm formation, lay and whacker a 100–150mm MOT type 1 sub-base, then bed slabs on a full wet mortar bed with a primer slurry — not five dabs on each corner, which is why so many local patios rock and stain within two years. Falls are set at 1:80 away from the house and below the damp course.
Drainage on Hertfordshire clay
Much of the county sits on heavy clay that holds water all winter. Where a lawn is waterlogged we install land drains into a soakaway sized for the area, or a linear channel at the patio edge tied into an existing gully. Downpipes get checked at the same time — half the sodden lawns we see are a cracked shoe discharging straight onto the grass.
Decking, sleepers and fencing
Hardwood decking on treated joists at 400mm centres, hidden fixings, ventilated below and a gravel board to keep the ends dry. Raised beds in new tanalised sleepers with a membrane between soil and timber so they last. Close-board fencing on concrete posts and gravel boards — feather-edge on arris rails, not panels, because panels blow out in the first bad February.
Turf, planting and finish
New lawns go onto rotavated, levelled and screened topsoil with a pre-turf feed, laid in stretcher bond and rolled. Beds are planted to a simple scheme you can actually maintain. We finish with the edging, the outside tap or the socket for the lights, and take every last skip of spoil away.
