Doncaster & South Yorkshire
Patios · Doncaster & South Yorkshire
Stone and porcelain patios built on a full sub-base with correct falls and edge restraint: the parts nobody sees, and the only reason a patio stays level, dry underfoot and free of rocking slabs.
20 years' experience · fully insured · every project backed by a 2-year workmanship guarantee
20 years
Trading experience
Team of 11
Directly employed
£2m / £10m
Public & employers' liability
2-year guarantee
10-year warranty on request
CSCS · NVQ 6
SSSTS & NHBC Masterclass
Overview
Almost every failed patio in South Yorkshire failed below the slabs. Spot-bedded paving, a thin sub-base and falls that run toward the house produce rocking slabs, standing water, weed-filled joints and staining within a couple of years. Surefoot builds patios the way we build footings: dig out properly, compact in layers, set falls from a datum, and bed every slab fully.
Excavation and disposal, sub-base construction, full mortar bedding, laying in natural stone, porcelain or block, cutting to line, jointing, edge restraint, steps and level changes, integrated drainage, and the brickwork or walling that frames the patio where the design calls for it.
Homeowners who want usable outdoor space rather than a slab of concrete; households replacing a patio that rocks, floods or has sunk; and anyone finishing an extension who needs external levels tied correctly to the new threshold and DPC.
After an extension or groundworks when levels have changed, when an existing patio has sunk, cracked or become slippery, when water pools against the house after rain, and when a sloping garden needs a level terrace to be usable at all.
Patios have to shed water away from the building, sit below the damp proof course, and carry foot traffic and furniture over ground that moves seasonally. Falls, sub-base depth and full bedding are engineering decisions, not finishing touches, and porcelain in particular is unforgiving of a poor bed.
What it costs to get wrong
A patio is one of the few purchases where the cheap version and the correct version look identical on the day it is finished, and completely different two winters later.
Slabs laid on five blobs of mortar are hollow underneath. Water gets into the void, freezes, and lifts the slab. Then it rocks, then it cracks, and the only real fix is lifting and relaying.
Falls running toward the house, or a patio built up above the DPC, drives rainwater into your wall. That is a damp problem inside the building, not a garden problem, and it costs far more than the patio did.
Sand over soft ground instead of compacted Type 1 in layers gives you a surface that settles unevenly. Once the levels go, every joint opens and the whole area starts moving.
Buying porcelain without a primer or slurry bond, laying stone straight onto old concrete without checking falls, no edge restraint so the perimeter creeps, and using kiln-dried sand where a resin or mortar joint is required.
Our process
Send dimensions, photographs and the material you have in mind. Tell us where the water currently goes, that usually explains what needs fixing.
We take levels from a fixed datum, check the DPC height, assess ground conditions and existing drainage, and confirm access for materials and spoil.
Priced on the real excavation depth, real sub-base build-up and real material, with the specification written down so you can compare it honestly against other quotes.
Dig out and remove spoil, membrane where needed, MOT Type 1 compacted in layers, mortar bed laid full, slabs primed and bedded, cuts made cleanly, falls checked continuously, then jointed and edged.
We check levels, falls and joints with you, clean the surface down, and back the work with a 2-year workmanship guarantee, with a 10-year warranty available on request.
What you get
Full mortar bedding on a compacted base means every slab is supported across its whole face, not on five spots of mortar.
Falls set from a datum and drainage designed in, with the finished level kept below the DPC.
Courses and cuts planned before the first slab goes down, so the awkward cut does not land in the middle of the main sightline.
Because we are bricklayers, the steps, retaining walls and edging around the patio are built in the same brick language as your property.
£2,000,000 public liability, £10,000,000 employers' liability, CSCS, SSSTS, NVQ Level 6 and NHBC Masterclass.
A 2-year workmanship guarantee, with a 10-year warranty available on request.
In detail
Material choice changes the method. These are the surfaces and details we work with across Doncaster and South Yorkshire.
Indian sandstone, limestone, granite and Yorkshire-style riven stone. Calibrated and uncalibrated stone bedded to accommodate thickness variation, with the darker or lighter blends distributed across the area rather than laid pack by pack, which is what causes patchy finished patios.
20mm outdoor porcelain in large formats, laid on a full mortar bed with a slurry primer to the underside: non-negotiable with porcelain, because it is non-porous and will not bond without it. Cut with a wet saw for clean, chip-free edges.
Block paving and clay pavers where a jointed, flexible surface suits the setting, laid on compacted base with correct edge restraint and jointing.
Excavation to a depth that suits the ground, geotextile membrane over weak subgrade, MOT Type 1 compacted in layers rather than one deep lift, and a full wet mortar bed. Falls of roughly one in eighty away from the building, confirmed on site.
Brush-in resin compounds or mortar joints depending on the material and joint width, linear channel drainage or gullies where the fall has nowhere else to go, and edge restraint or a brick soldier course so the perimeter cannot migrate.
Brick or stone-faced steps, low retaining walls to hold a terrace on a slope, thresholds tied correctly into new extension levels, and lighting or power conduits laid before the surface goes down rather than chased in afterwards.
£2,000,000 public liability and £10,000,000 employers' liability cover, with a 2-year workmanship guarantee on every project and a 10-year warranty available on request.
Questions
Anything not covered here, call Michael on +44 7856 247499 and ask.
Related work
Complete garden transformations delivered by a single accountable team, groundworks, walling, paving and features, so you are not project-managing four trades, and the whole garden is covered by one 2-year workmanship guarantee.
View serviceBoundary, garden and retaining walls built on proper footings with the right mortar and drainage, so the wall you pay for once stays plumb, dry and crack-free instead of leaning within a few winters.
View serviceDriveways excavated and based for the weight they actually carry, with compliant surface water drainage and proper edge restraint, so you get a surface that holds its shape instead of rutting, sinking and puddling within two winters.
View serviceWe cover Doncaster and the surrounding towns, see the full list of areas we work in, browse all Surefoot services, or send your project details for a tailored price.
Send dimensions and a couple of photographs and we will visit, take levels, check where the water goes, and price the full build-up in writing.
Fully insured · CSCS, SSSTS, NVQ Level 6 & NHBC Masterclass · 2-year workmanship guarantee
