Patios excavated to depth, built on a compacted sub base, and set to a fall that carries water away from your house. Steps, garden walls and raised terraces built as structures rather than stacked.
Patios are paved outdoor floors laid on a built up base: excavated ground, a compacted sub base, then a bedding layer or a reinforced concrete slab, finished to a fall that carries water away from the building. The paving itself is the last 40mm of the job.
Everything that goes wrong with a patio goes wrong underneath it. Slabs rock because the base was never compacted in layers. Corners drop because the dig stopped short of firm ground. Water ponds because no fall was set out. And the level creeps up the wall of the house until it sits where the damp proof course needs clear air.
Cornwall Civils & Construction builds a garden terrace the way it builds a foundation.
The old surface, topsoil and any soft ground come out, and the dig goes down until it reaches something that will carry the load. On west Cornwall plots that can mean granite or Blue Elvan coming up shallow, or digging past made ground behind the house.
Clean stone laid and compacted in layers to the depth the ground and the use demand, so the finish sits on something structural, not a skim of sand over soil.
Where the ground is poor, the terrace is raised, or the surface has to carry a hot tub, a garden room or a structure, we pour a reinforced base and let it cure before anything is laid on it.
Every terrace is set out to a fall away from the building, with channel drains, gullies and a connection into a soakaway or an existing surface water run where the levels call for it.
Garden walls, low retaining structures and full reinforced retaining walls, drained behind the back face so water is never trapped against them.
Cast in situ concrete steps and built steps between terraces, set out so the rise and going stay consistent across a sloping Cornish garden.
Six parts to a patio job, and only one is the paving.
A surface that stays where it was laidSettlement, rocking slabs and cracked joints are base problems. A dig taken to firm ground and a sub base compacted in layers is what prevents them.
Water goes where you put itFalls are set out before anything is laid, so rain runs off the terrace and away from the house rather than pooling on it or tracking back to the wall.
Your levels stay right at the houseThe finished height against the building is worked out at the survey, before the first barrow of stone arrives.
Ground held back properlyRetaining walls and raised terraces are built as structures, with the drainage behind them designed in from the start.
A patio is a ground engineering job before it is a paving job. Building Regulations Approved Document C requires a damp proof course to sit at least 150mm above the adjoining ground or paving. Lay a new surface over an old one, gain 50mm here and 40mm there, and that clearance disappears. Rain then sits against a wall at a height the building was never designed to shed it from.
BS 7533, the British Standard series for pavements built from modular paving units, is written almost entirely about what sits underneath them: sub base, laying course and edge restraint. That is groundworks.
Cornwall Civils & Construction pours to architects' and engineers' drawings on structural jobs, and a garden terrace gets the same discipline: the same director on site operating the machine, and the same £5m public liability, including groundworks and demolition up to 15 metres.
Matt Richards owns and runs Cornwall Civils & Construction from Newlyn. He started in construction at 17 and has 23 years behind him: mason by trade, then working foreman, then site manager across groundworks and demolition, and now director of his own company.
He led 45 linear metres of reinforced concrete retaining wall at St Ives as director and machine operator, with cast in situ steps and three attenuation tanks taking water off the roof and car park.
It is the sequence he sets out under a foundation.
People pick the slab first and think about the ground last. I do it the other way round: dig it out, get the base right, set the falls off the house, then lay the finish on something that will hold it.Matt Richards, director
23 years in construction, mason by trade
Reinforced concrete and retaining structures to engineers' designs
£5m public liability, including groundworks and demolition up to 15 metres
Director led, on site, operating the machine
We work from Newlyn and build patios, terraces and garden walls across west Cornwall. St Ives gardens are steep and stepped, Marazion plots take the weather off Mount's Bay, and Falmouth gardens fall towards the estuary, so levels and drainage decide the job in all three. Penzance, Hayle, St Just, Helston, Camborne and Redruth are inside the regular working area.
The terrace, step and retaining work behind this page comes off structural jobs. On one cliffside restoration, cantilevered steps, a soffit slab with integrated drainage and a sunken hot tub were built on ground a one ton dumper could barely reach.
We do not publish rates, because a patio is priced on the ground it is going on. You get a site visit and a written quote before anything is booked, setting out:
What moves the figure most is what comes out of the ground, not what goes on top of it. There is no charge for the visit or the quote.
Every review on our Google profile was left by someone we have actually worked for, and the widget below pulls them live rather than quoting a selection back at you.
Based on 5 Google reviews
Great company to work with. Professional, reliable and well organised from start to finish. Communication is always clear, sites are well run & the team are a pleasure to deal with. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend them and look forward to working together again!
Read more on GoogleCornwall Civils have been working on a complex external works package for our project in St Ives. Their works have included an extensive concrete retaining wall, in-situ concrete stairs and an in-ground modular drainage system.
Read more on GoogleCornwall Civils handled a tricky concrete shuttering, steel work, and pour for us on an emergency job. They stepped in at very short notice and worked through nights and weekends to get it done. The quality of their work was excellent, and their commitment was outstanding.
Read more on GoogleI recently had the pleasure of working with Matry at Cornwall Civils and Construction, and I couldn’t be more impressed with the service provided.
Read more on GoogleOne further five-star rating was left on Google without a written review.
Tell us what the space is going to be used for and send a photo of the garden. Matt comes and looks at the levels before anything is priced, and the quote comes back in writing with the scope on it.
Call Matt Richards on 07958 102538 · Get a free quote online
14 The Strand, Newlyn, Penzance, TR18 5HN
Phone: 07958 102538
Email: info@cornwallcivilsandconstruction.co.uk
Hours: Mon to Fri 07:00 to 17:00 · Sat 08:00 to 12:00
Sunday: emergency call out only
Last updated: 22 September 2026
