The Harpenden patio repair
A year-old patio already sinking, lifted and relaid on a proper base.
- Town
- Harpenden
- Postcode
- AL5
- Year
- 2026
// The brief
A year old and already sinking.
Another firm had laid Ben's patio only a year before, and it was already sinking.
Ben had his patio laid by another firm a year earlier, and it was already sinking. When we visited in February, the joints between the slabs were open in places, with moss and weeds growing through. The granite edge along the lawn was uneven and half lost in the grass.
When we lifted the slabs to see what was going on, the reason was plain. In places there was almost no MOT Type 1 (the crushed stone base a patio sits on), 20mm at most, and some of it you could wipe away with your hand. Parts of the patio were sitting on bare mud, with no membrane at all.
// Before and after
The same corner, on a proper base.
Both are real photos of this job, taken before we started and when we finished.
// What we did
What we changed.
In April we lifted the sinking slabs and dug out what was under them. We laid a membrane (a sheet that stops the base mixing into the soil) and a proper, compacted MOT Type 1 sub-base, then relaid the slabs with fresh pointing, the mortar that fills the gaps between them. We relaid the edge too: a straight line of granite setts, small square paving blocks, between the stone and the grass. Then we made good the lawn edge with fresh soil. In his review, Ben says the guys on site worked fast and cleared away after themselves.
- Sinking slabs lifted
- Membrane and a proper MOT Type 1 sub-base
- Slabs relaid, with fresh pointing
- Granite sett edge to the lawn
- Lawn edge made good with soil
// More photos
During the work, and the finish.
“Probably the best communication pre and post works of any trades company I have dealt with.”
The Milton Keynes block paving driveway
A two-car block paved drive taken over to the house, in new brindle blocks matched to the old.
Langford
The curved sandstone garden
A garden paved wall to wall, opened up with curved paving, two lawns and proper drainage.
Chalfont
The elevated sandstone terrace
80 square metres of sandstone, raised to house height over failing concrete.
Got a garden like this?
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Book a free design consultation, get an instant estimate online, or call us on 01582 377 593.
Where we work. Dunstable, Luton, Leighton Buzzard, St Albans, Hemel Hempstead, Aylesbury, Milton Keynes, and the towns and villages in between.