Acalming space, bathed in sunshine... there’s no better place than a patio if you want to leave the workaday world behind. Gardening – what’s that?

You have to get it right, however. I have seen patios so fussy and gloomy and strewn with dustbins and bikes, you wonder why people bothered to make them. They don’t work because they were not carefully planned. A patio is like a garden: if you make it efficient and simple, you won’t stop to think about whether it works. You’ll just enjoy being there. This is a good time of year to lay a patio, before the plants really get into growth, so can be easily moved if necessary.

So, what are you going to use it for? A patio provides a space to sit, eat or read. It allows you to be in the garden when it’s too soggy underfoot to want to head into the bushes. And it is a breather between house and garden, something to stop the planting running slap into the walls.

Keeping all this in mind, think about when you will use it. I once inherited an east-facing back garden with a small patio that was fabulous for summer breakfasts. By the time I got home from work, however, the sun had gone and the space felt unappealing. There was no point enlarging the patio there – far better to make another space at the end of the garden to catch the evening rays.

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Size

Everybody makes patios too small. Two-thirds the height of the house is about right. It seems a lot, but trust me. If that swallows up the whole garden, perhaps you should plump for a 50:50 mixture of plants and paving. A patio that is little more than a path across the back of the house is a waste of time, and trying to use it is like walking a tightrope in wet weather.

If your garden is more than handkerchief-sized, think about traffic lanes: who goes where and why. It is worth taking out a table and chairs to see whether they take up most of the useful space. If so, the proposed area is not big enough.

Construction

Builders and garden-making do not go together well. The former tend to think gardens are a waste of good concreting space. In a new garden, they never leave space for planting against the house – vertical meets horizontal in a zip-tight seam, broken only by the odd rainwater drain. It looks much better if the patio is shunted a yard from the house, allowing you to create a border against the walls and wrap the space in greenery.

Until it is covered with furniture and containers, many a patio seems too big because of the size of the paving units. Big spaces look hideously fussy covered with little paviours – it’s far better to go for large slabs. Think about the rhythm of the paving, too. Slabs laid in rows running side to side across the garden will make a wide patio seem wider still. Those laid in rows running away from the house can make a long patio seem like a runway. Random paving (interlocking rectangles of various sizes) is a good compromise, but keep the scale of the pieces sufficiently generous. Despite its naff reputation, crazy paving can be fine, as long as the scale is right in relation to the space. (It rarely is, because people use miserable offcuts for the job.)

When it comes to paving materials, there are many tempting options. Again, simplicity is the key. Get the scale right and choose a material that works with the age and colour of the house. It does not have to be the same, but should be sympathetic. It’s best to use just one material throughout the patio (and the rest of the garden), with perhaps one other for decorative detail – the same material in another colour may be enough. It’s only paving, after all – you are meant to be enjoying the plants, not being distracted by hectic surfaces.

When digging out the area, make sure the finished level (remember the height of the slabs or bricks) is at least 6in below your damp course and air bricks. If the patio is next to the house, lay it at a slight gradient away from the house to ensure good drainage. You will also need a compacted base of hard-core and sand on which to put the slabs.

If you leave the task to a builder, you should work out your choice of materials and the overall size pretty firmly before you ask for quotations. Stick to your guns and get the materials you think will look right, not what the builder prefers, as you could end up with a garden that looks like a supermarket car park.

There may well be rectangular metal drain covers where the patio is to lie – builders take a perverse delight in setting them at every angle under the sun save one at right angles to the house. Would you hang a picture cockeyed over a fireplace? Of course not. Get your builder to reset the covers at an angle that matches the direction of the paving materials. It’s a price you will never regret paying.

Materials

Reconstituted stone slabs: Clever concrete, but they can look convincingly like stone, are good value, and leave a lower carbon footprint than importing the real thing. But watch out – the scale can be disappointingly small. Avoid using squares in big areas, as they can produce a distracting chequerboard effect.
Concrete or brick paving stones: These can be rectangular, hexagonal or S-shaped. They are tough and easy to lay, but would perhaps look more at home on a driveway.
Concrete street paving slabs: Great value for their size and scale. They are coarse when new, but fine when weathered. The same scale in any other material would be prohibitively expensive. Large, so tricky, but fast to lay.
New sawn or riven stone: Good value, but not cheap – and check that it is not naturally slippery. These days, stone is usually imported from China or India, and there are issues over the use of cheap or even child labour – check the company’s code of conduct and sourcing policies.
Recycled York stone: Expensive, eco-friendly and classy, but not always the best patio material, as it can be slippery. Hard to cut and lay.
Old brick: Soft, absorbent and slow to dry out, it is slippery and encourages moss in shade, but is romantic and cottagey. Good for small areas. Modern, harder-wearing versions are available.
Granite setts: Expensive to buy and lay, and fussy over large areas. Great for detailed work alongside bigger slabs, though. Can be new or recycled. Cobbles: Delightful to look at, but not easy to walk on or stand furniture on. Hard to clean, so best for details.

Cost

Prices vary according to the quantity ordered and whether you need delivery. For instance, a 10-square-metre patio project pack of Bradstone’s Milldale reconstituted concrete costs about £175 from suppliers such as Homebase and B&Q; the same quantity of recycled York stone costs about £650 from Bingley Stone, including delivery. Then there is the matter of laying it: it is a reasonably straightforward task if you are patient and strong enough to lift the slabs. If you use a builder, it should be about three days’ work.

Where to buy: Bingley Stone (01535 273813, www.bingleystone.com); Bradstone (0800 975 9828, www.bradstone.com); IBS Reclaim (01844 239400, www.ibsreclaim.co.uk); Lonstone (www.lonstone.co.uk); Marshalls (0870 120 7474, www.marshalls.co.uk); Stone Heritage (01629 650647, www.stoneheritage.com); Stonemarket (024 7651 8700, www.stonemarket.co.uk)

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