I Wonder Why This Number Is Rising So...
Politics0 min ago
Where does our obsession with the patios come from
00:00 Wed 30th May 2001 | Home & Garden
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The concept of the outside room may be fairly new-fangled but we Brits have really been going patio mad since the late sixties. Patio is a Spanish word for outside seating area and the concept started to catch on when the first ex-pat barbecue (also Spanish) converts brought al fresco (Italian) dining to these shores from America and Australia. Before that a covered area near the house, usually reserved for genteel afternoon tea, was better known as the verandah, a suitably colonial borrowing from Hindi.�
Q.� What are the best materials to use
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That depends very much on your personal tastes and budget. The days when your choice was concrete slabs in either grey or brown are now long gone thanks to our current fervour for stylish gardens. These days you'll find all the major DIY chains and builders merchants offer a fairly wide range of colours and materials, some designed to look aged and retro, with varying levels of success.�
If you can afford it there is nothing more handsome than original slate paving from a reclamation yard. Gone are the days when you could pick up genuine bargains from these places, so be prepared to pay an arm and a leg for the real thing.
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Q.� What about laying it yourself
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There will have been plenty of DIY patios laid over this last Bank Holiday weekend and the chances are most of them will not have been thought out properly. It is not as simple as throwing a bed of concrete down and shoving the slabs on top.�
The most popular area for a patio is against the outside wall looking out over the rest of the garden, a wall that is liable to hold not only damp coursing but air bricks to ventilate timber floors.
Every year thousands of us make the mistake of laying patios on what's their, effectively raising the level by a few inches. This often results in run-off water getting into walls above the damp coursing and blocking up air bricks. It is not enough just to skirt round them as this often leads�to wells forming and water building up and running under the floorboards. To avoid problems it is vital to excavate far enough down so that the patio is at least six inches below the damp coursing and doesn't block air bricks.
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If that sounds like too much work why not build it further up the garden in a secluded spot, maybe with an arbour or pergola for plants to climb up
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If you've got a question about your house or garden, click here.
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By Tom Gard
