If you’ve decided you want to lay a new patio to enhance your garden or outdoor area, or perhaps you want to change the slabs in your yard or terrace, the first step is deciding on the location for your patio. Once you’ve planned your patio area however you can start to make preparations to begin laying your new paved seating area.

The best first step when making your preparations is to draw a patio plan, preferably on graph paper, but more importantly drawn to scale. This should include any obstacles your paving slabs and patio will be designed around, feature plants or trees that you need or want to build into the design and, most importantly, manhole covers. You will need to ensure there is still easy access to any manhole covers in case future drainage work needs to be carried out. The last thing you want is to find you have problems due to insufficient planning at the initial stages of laying a new patio and your whole patio has to be taken up to solve a simple problem like a blocked drain.

Once you have a blueprint for the layout of your new patio, the next thing is choosing the design you prefer to compliment the rest of your garden. There is a wide range of materials that your paving slabs can be made from, and they come in a range of colours, shapes and sizes to suit most people’s patio design needs. You should consider whether the type of paving you prefer is available in half-slabs as well as full slabs, as this can be useful for fitting your patio around existing features and means you don’t have the potential waste caused by cutting slabs. Your finished patio will also look neater if you can avoid cutting the slabs yourself as the edges should match any full size flag stones. The different types of flagging you can choose from include:

1. natural stone blocks in cubes, sets or flag stones
2. block paving
3. pre-cast concrete slabs
4. permeable concrete blocks
5. slate
6. york stone
7. brick paving
8. textured, riven or decorative flag stones

When you have chosen the type of flag stones or paving materials you want to use for your new patio, you can then obtain quotes for a professional paving and driveway service or landscape gardening company to design the rest of your garden. Alternatively, if you prefer to lay the patio yourself, you can begin making the groundwork preparations to lay your new patio.

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