Patios in Walkden
Patios built from the ground up in porcelain, Indian stone or traditional flagging, set on a full mortar bed over a compacted sub-base, with falls that carry rainwater away from your house and finish below the damp course. Around six miles from our Leigh base.
Patios for Walkden Gardens
A patio is where a Walkden family garden actually gets used, the barbecue, the table, somewhere for the kids to be off the wet lawn. We size and place it for how you’ll use it and for where the sun sits in the afternoon, whether that’s a plot near Parr Fold or a longer garden on the Walkden North side.
We cover Walkden and the surrounding area: the town centre, Hill Top, Parr Fold, Linnyshaw, Walkden North and beyond (M28).
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What’s Included
On material we’ll talk you through porcelain, Indian stone and flagging honestly. Porcelain is the most stain and moss resistant and stays looking new, Indian stone weathers into a softer natural look for less money, and flagging suits a plainer traditional finish. Every one of them is laid on a full mortar bed on clay, because spot-bedding over ground that moves is how patios end up rocking within a couple of years.
- Porcelain, Indian stone and traditional flagging
- Full dig-out and compacted MOT Type 1 sub-base
- Every flag on a full mortar bed, not five dabs
- Falls set so water runs away from the house
- Finished below the damp proof course as standard
- Joints filled with mortar or resin against weeds
- Sunken or rocking flags lifted and relaid
How It Works
Patios in Walkden, FAQs
Full mortar bedding on a compacted base is the answer. Clay swells when it’s wet and shrinks when it dries, so a flag sitting on dabs will rock as the ground moves under it. Bed the whole flag and it stays put through the seasons.
The finished surface has to be well below the damp proof course, and we work to at least 150mm, falling gently away from the wall so rain runs off into the garden rather than back towards the brick. We joint the flags tightly too, which keeps weeds out of the gaps on a damp Walkden plot.
Porcelain is dense, colour-consistent and barely stains, so a porcelain patio stays looking new with almost no upkeep, but it costs more and needs a skilled lay. Indian stone is natural, so every flag varies, and it weathers into the garden nicely at a lower price, though it benefits from an occasional clean and seal. Neither is wrong; it comes down to the look you want and the budget you’re working to.
A typical patio runs three to five days: dig-out and sub-base first, then the laying, then jointing once the beds have firmed up. Wet weather can stretch things slightly because mortar and jointing compounds need time to cure, and we’d rather wait a day than joint onto a bed that isn’t ready.
Nine times out of ten it was laid on sand or dabs of mortar with no proper sub-base, so the ground underneath has settled. If it’s a few flags, we can lift and relay them on fresh full beds, or repoint where the joints have just washed out. If the base has failed across the whole area, relaying the lot on a compacted sub-base is the honest fix, because patching a bad base only moves the problem along.