Garden

[KN4321]

Hi thinking of buying a house - the only issue is this garden, which is putting me off! The garden is flagged and higher than the house level via steps. Can this be made one level and lawn placed? I have attached photos and an example of what we which to achieve. Could I do this myself or need a builder ? I was thinking removing flags, dig up the soil to level and place turf?

that's a lot of paving.
of course it can be replaced with turf, but you might find a load of rubble not soil underneath.the flags are small enough to move on your own

Thanks for the reply

So the rubble will be hard to dig up to level? Would I need a professional then?

The garden is really putting me off buying the house, as always wanted a garden. However the house is lovely inside (except toilet off kitchen). Compromising on garden.

They are probably set on mortar type stuff with a layer of sand and 15cm of crushed concrete under. I dare say you could dig it all out yourself if time/energy, unless the mortar stuff is very thick in which case you might need someone with a jack hammer to break it up. You would need a skip (several loads?) to remove it.

Then have some topsoil delivered, wheelbarrow it in and lay turf. That's easy and will cost a couple of / few hundred £.

You will need a skip, maybe some hired equipment (and enthusiasm)

This wouldn't put me off buying if i loved the house
designing a garden from scratch will be an amazing project 😍🤩

Are you on a hill? Would you need to build a retaining wall if you level it? We had the back garden higher than the house in our last place, it was full of rubble and builders rubbish we ended up leaving it at that level and turfing over the top.

Would be a lot of work but from the photo looks a lovely private space.

I think you'd need a mini digger unless you have endless hours and are very fit. It's a back backing job to do by hand.

That would be a big job to do yourself, I'd definitely be getting someone in and putting a chunk of money aside.

Definitely doable. But hire someone. Don’t do it yourself. We made that mistake once - and underneath all the paving slabs and hardcore was...another set of paving slabs. They had built one patio on top of an older one.

Hi thanks for all the reply’s

Odd layout, the house not on hill but the street behind is on higher level so their garden and ours raised high. I suspect will need a wall then.

I not sure how they would get mini digger in to back garden.

Sounds like a lot of work for me to do.

I was quoted 14k by a landscaper - that’s why it’s putting me off the house.

An option is to turf at higher level - that’s what next door have done.

I just dreamed of this flat garden with grass , when I brought a house :(

Yes you’ll need a retaining wall. I speak from experience when I say this is costly and time consuming. Better to lear to live with a tiered garden.
You can remove the flags.

14k is insane. Man with mini digger 350 a day, would take him 3 days to dig max, 3 skips pr0b 800, then a load of top soil probably 1000, then you can either seed if you can be bothered to water it which costs hardly anything or turf which will be more. You can do the job for under 4k for sure. Never pay a landscaper. Oh..unless you need a retaining wall, then you jeed a bricky and materials, prob another 1k.

Did you have a bad experience?

We just did ours, very large countryside area and we were quoted by 10 people, cheapest quote was 28k, we did it without a company using individuals for 10k

Yeah I thought 14k was crazy. That was quote from landscaper. Sorry if it dumb question, who would you contact for this kind of work then?

If I had to live with it like that I wouldn’t want the house I think. Sad to say.

I just wondered if would be possible to change.

Sorry fir my ignorance. Is section A acting like retaining wall or is it B ? Or would all need to come down to the edge of property and new retaining wall built.

You could level that garden easily and I would suggest you get more quotes as they tend to vary a lot. Digging out the raised bit and building a retaining wall around the perimeter isn’t a massive job and shouldn’t take more than a few weeks but retaining walls may need replacing in the future and they cost a bit more that regular walls.

The only thing I would say is which way does the garden face? Because if it’s a north facing garden, digging down will put the area into more shade. It being raised might be the only sunny spot in the garden. I don’t dislike the garden to be honest! I think there’s a lot that could be done with it!

South west garden

What was £14k for?

£14k to landscape a garden of that size is within parameters of normal if you’re in SE.

If you need a retaining wall a bricky will not suffice. If you require much height then you’ll almost certainly need an engineer. Heavy rainfall can be catastrophic for a poor designed/built retaining wall.

Difficult to tell from the photos but the back wall seems to be the main retaining wall. Likely the reason you have another step down is because many areas require planning permission/building control where a retaining wall is over a certain height so by building two levels they’ve avoided the expense.

I actually think the garden has loads of potential.

I see what you mean maybe there would be shadow from digging down didn’t think of that.

What other things can be done with it?

I have removed two patios/hideous concrete block areas from my garden myself. I lifted the flags, hired a pneumatic drill and dug out the rubble, then leveled the ground and turfed it. The areas were 3m x 3m and 2m x 4m. I'm a teacher and doing it alone took every day of the summer holidays (6 and a half weeks) and 83 tip runs in my hatchback. I lost a stone and went a bit dead from the drilling.

I would say that it is absolutely worth it to pay professionals!

Do you want one flat lawn because you have very small DC? I think zoned gardens look lovely: somewhere for planting, somewhere for eating with a mixture of textures: wood, brick, water, render all softened by planting.

Everyone’s aesthetics are different but take a look on Pinterest. Loads of great ideas there.

You may find a groundwork's contractor cheaper than a landscaper and perfectly qualified to do what you are asking although they may not lay turf, you may need to do that yourself.

The picture with the pergola could accommodate raised beds behind and actually they’d add interest.

The other picture gives an idea of how you can layer a garden - you could extend out the lower raised area and use it as a focal point.

Is the reason you want it level because you have children/think it’s unsafe?

It’s hard to see how close the raised bit is to the house but you could extend the raised bit closer to the house, build a small retaining wall and get it filled with hardcore. Build steps up to this level from the courtyard patio area (not the whole way across) Then if you want grass, remove the slabs and turf the entire area. Then change the patio near the house to something more modern and have your little seating/bbq area down there.