Garden landscape. Not happy. What do you think?

[Livinginchaos]

I had my garden landscaped recently. This is the first time I have ever had a big job done in my house. Something I have saved up for a long time for.

The tradesman is in tomorrow and I am not sure if aibu re some of the issues I want to bring up. Can anyone help me please?

The edge of the patio isn't straight. See picture 3 as an example but this is all around the edge of it.

The step doesn't seem finished and looks ugly. We agreed to a wooden edging but you can see the concrete layer above it. See picture 2

He has put wood alongside the edges of the patio but it looks rubbish. See the gap between the wood and the paving slabs, and between the two adjoining sections of wood. He also has put little wooden struts alongside it which looks awful and doesn't seem necessary. See picture 1

He also said he would take out a tree but now says its too difficult and I need to pay a tree surgeon to do it. He has left me with a stump.

Patio is not evenly placed: some gaps where pointing is are extremely thin and some much wider. Mumsnet won't let me upload another picture but you can probably see from the ones here. I know he will say that the nature of the slabs is that they are uneven, but this seems like an excuse for the level of differences between the slabs.

Am I being unreasonable? Would you be happy with this?

He comes over tomorrow to finish off so I need to be prepared with what I want to say.

If you don’t have any cocaine to give him, try toffeepops or the proper figrolls.

It looks more like an amateur/DIY job to me which would be a great job of it if it were. Some good advice on here from professional landscapers. I’d make a list of what you want to discuss and calmly raise each issue in a ‘what shall we do about x’ sort of way rather than going in complaint mode from the off. Good luck

@3luckystars

If you don’t have any cocaine to give him, try toffeepops or the proper figrolls.

I absolutely lost it at that.

That's a really bad job, the spaces are so irregular, also why did you you both agree to the wood? Surely over time it will rot and affect the structure of the patio?

@3luckystars

If you don’t have any cocaine to give him, try toffeepops or the proper figrolls.

🤣

The wood and stone combo is a really bad idea. Stone shouldn’t be laid onto wood like that for the step.

Thanks for all the comments and advice.

The builder suggested wood and I went with it because I was stupid and trusted him.

Oh dear. That's awful, I'm so sorry. Have all your issues written down for when he comes tomorrow. Have you paid? Please dont if you havent.

Sorry OP, that's a really shocking job.

Give the builder an opportunity to start it all again correct their work. Don't pay anything else.

Good luck OP.

I’m afraid every single piece of wood involved looks like completely untreated (unless I’m missing something?) which means in probably less than a year, all of the wood will rot in UK weather. Here; have some liquid courage as then tell him it’s complete crap.

@Livinginchaos

Thanks for all the comments and advice.

The builder suggested wood and I went with it because I was stupid and trusted him.

You weren't stupid OP.

It needs to be ripped up. feel for you.

It's not a very good standard.

Is it sandstone?

If it is it will need sealing as it stains. It stains very easily!

That's a shocking job, OP. I've seen DIY paving that looks better than that.

I certainly wouldn't be handing over any more money until the uneven paving is sorted. The wooden edging is trickier, as you agreed to it.

Sorry OP it needs major work doing to make it look decent. Do not pay anything until it is put right.

No I wouldn't be happy.

Oh dear, I feel for you. It’s so disappointing when you save hard for something and it isn’t right.

My husbands a landscaper and has recently done our garden in an almost identical way. I think we even have the same slabs!

And your work is not great.

The only thing I will say is, ours also has a slight mismatch of gaps between the slabs.
I was going to ask DH about this but when I've seen other houses with the same slabs they all have a slight mismatch of gaps. I'm not sure if this is because they are always down to guess work or the slabs are a little uneven therefore impossible to get a correct gap each time.

@RightYesButNo

I’m afraid every single piece of wood involved looks like completely untreated (unless I’m missing something?) which means in probably less than a year, all of the wood will rot in UK weather. Here; have some liquid courage as then tell him it’s complete crap.

It's oak by the look of it which doesn't need to be treated, but any timber moves so can't understand why it's been used where it has. It actually looks like fresh sawn oak (not kiln dried) so it will move even more.

I had a patio laid with similar slabs and it doesn't look uneven - and this wasn't laid by an expensive company or anything.

You may or may not be able to see but the holding edge is faced with partial slabs, instead of wood. The sides aren't faced equivalently, but that's because I had got a total bargain on the slabs so had a fixed quantity and we were working with what we had!

It then has a step down to the lawn, which doesn't have faced edges but was done so tidily that it still looks good.

The step looks unfinished. Aside from the rotting/moving/shrinking/expanding issue. Good luck, OP.

I'd say he needs to rectify the following:
Wooden edging is an awful idea and needs to go, ideally that should have been brick/stone or brick clad with a weather resistant finish of your choice like a composite material or ceramic or something you like the look of depending on the colours you want. But to build it, you'd need to start from scratch 😞

As a minimum, The edging is very poor and needs to be rectified - again remove slabs, cut (new ones probably) and replace.

The uneven gaps are only acceptable up to a point where the edges of the slabs are uneven. In this case they are very bad but if everything else was rectified, it's probably something you could live with.

Very harsh lesson here I'm so sorry you're dealing with this mess. For future work, gave daily discussions before work commences and at the end of each work day as it helps rectify any issues as they appear.

Forget about the tree stump for now, write it off, and get someone with a tree grinder to do the job later.

To be fair, your paving slabs are very unevenly cut and you can't create a perfect geometric pattern with slabs that aren't identical sizes and aren't perfect squares/rectangles. That's why the slabs near the bamboo screen are sticking out - they're not the same size and he's aligned them on the inner edge. Some of the slabs aren't cut square so of course there are varying gaps when laid next to each other.

Did you source the slabs yourself or did he? If he chose them I would reject the entire work as he provided poorly cut slabs that are impossible to lay well.

Forgot to add: the top layer of the paved area should cover the top edges of the vertical sides unless the top of the sides create a proper edge all the way around. In this case, the wood should not be levelled with the stone but underneath it. The visible horizontal surface all the way would be just the stone.

That doesn't look great at all. How he has arranged the flags too are completely wrong and spoils the asthetics. Gaps are uneven.