Prices?? Anyone??

[RagingJellyBean]

I'm moving to a house with oodles of grass & I hate grass. If it weren't for my DD liking grass I'd rip the whole lot up! Too much work!!

Anyway, I'm in Scotland (if that helps/is relevant) and was wondering if anyone could tell me what they paid to have a medium sized garden ripped up and turned to slab/chuckies.

I really want a nice garden but money is pretty darn right at the moment so I'm just hoping to get rough figures. I've messaged some gardening companies around me but they're only interested if they can come out & quote but I don't have the house yet!

go on a paving suppliers site and bung in the m2 of the area you want to turn to concrete and then at the very least double it.

I have rejected buying a few houses if the ratio of bare ground to hard surface is too low, I am allergic to grass, but i would much rather have that and flowers/veg patches than a sterile surface

Slabs might seem like a low maintenance option but apart from a large expanse looking unattractive and causing run-off problems from high rainfall you'll have to deal with weeds growing in the cracks then the slabs will get slippery with green slime/algae which will need treating with nasty chemicals or pressure washing.

Just mow your grass occasionally, doesn't have to be Wimbledon standard. Much more environmentally friendly and much safer for children to play on. You say you want a nice garden - that generally involves plants!

Don't know what shape your garden is but you could do something groovy like cut the lawn area into a huge circle then plant easy maintenance shrubs round it.

Perhaps you don't hate grass, but your lawnmower?

I'm serious! A really difficult, awkward lawnmower is a thing of great misery. Maybe you could invest in a lighter/better model and an outdoor circuit that makes it easy to plug in, and this job would become something you actually enjoy?

A definite 'no' from me too to the idea of a slabbed garden. It's terrible for flooding and rainwater management - earth allows the water to drain away more effectively.

I would dig some beds around the edges to reduce the size of the lawn, and put in some large low-maintenance shrubs and trees that need little more than a prune each year. The end result will be so much more attractive.