Patio Installation in Greater Manchester
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.
Patio Installation
A patio is where a garden actually gets used. It’s the bit you stand the table on, the bit that catches the evening sun, the surface you walk out onto in bare feet, so it has to be flat, well drained and pleasant to look at, not just solid. The difference between a patio that stays that way and one that rocks, stains and greens over comes down almost entirely to what happens below the slabs. We dig out to the correct depth, compact an MOT Type 1 sub-base, and set every flag on a full mortar bed rather than five dabs, so nothing sinks or works loose down the line.
On the surface we lay porcelain, Indian stone and traditional flagging, and we’ll talk you through the trade-offs honestly. Porcelain is dense and colour-consistent, barely stains and needs almost no upkeep, though it costs more and wants a skilled hand to cut and lay. Indian sandstone gives natural colour variation and a warmer, softer look at a friendlier price, and it mellows into an established garden nicely with the odd clean. Riven or sawn, buff or grey, wide-format or coursed, we’ll match the stone to the house and to the way you actually want to use the space.
Every patio we lay is set to a slight fall so rainwater runs off into a border, a lawn or a channel rather than sitting in puddles, and it always finishes below the damp proof course so water can never track back against your brickwork. Joints are filled properly, with a brushed-in mortar or a resin jointing compound depending on the stone, so weeds and ants don’t colonise the gaps and the whole thing stays tight and clean for 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
Free site visit
We come out, measure up, check levels and where the sun falls, look at drainage and access, and go through stone samples with you.
Written quote
An itemised price covering excavation, sub-base, stone, jointing, labour and waste removal. No day-rate creep, no extras sprung at the end.
The build
Dig-out, sub-base compacted in layers, then the laying: flags set to falls on full mortar beds, cut in around edges and features, and jointed once the beds have firmed up.
Tidy handover
Waste cleared, the new patio washed down, and a walk-round with you before we call it finished.
Patios FAQs
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.
It depends on the size, the material and what we find when we dig. Porcelain costs more than Indian stone, but the excavation and sub-base are a fair chunk of the price whatever you lay on top. We price per job rather than a blanket rate per square metre, because a small fiddly patio costs more per metre to lay than a big open one, so you get an exact written figure after a free site visit.
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.
Not at all. We often build a separate seating area sited where the sun actually lands in the evening, which isn’t always right outside the back door. We set the falls, access and any steps to suit wherever it sits, so you get a patio you’ll use rather than one that’s simply in the obvious spot.
Patios Near You
We provide patios across Leigh and the surrounding towns. Pick your area for local details.