Any idea what this would cost please?

[mnahmnah]

Hi

We’re house hunting. We haven’t looked at this property yet, but it looks ideal except the garden, that currently isn’t a garden! Does anyone have any idea roughly what it would cost to change this into a simple lawned garden? I.e get rid of all the slabs. Obviously it varies - we’re in the north west of that helps

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Again! Sorry. Not doing well here

You could do it very cheaply. You can lift the flags yourself (just needs a pick axe) and then put them on Facebook for anyone to collect. Then it's just the cost of the turf, which isn't a huge area.

You may need to factor in the cost of removing any bodies that may be under the patio...

... although I think the Police do it for free nowadays.

@rumpsteak

That’s great to hear! We’re quite capable do that. I just didn’t know if there may be more to it regarding prepping for lawn, drainage etc.

@LadyGardenersQuestionTime
Good point. Hopefully the survey will alert us to this so we can prepare ourselves 😄

Sorry, that should have been addressed to @TwoLeftSocksWithHoles

It might need a bit of top soil but flags are often laid on soil with a layer of sand so it is probably not far off good to go once the flags are lifted. Drainage is likely to be ok dependent on the soil underneath. Any bodies will likely have decayed and added to the organic matter so increasing the quality of the soil😂

@rumpsteak

Got it. Bodies are a bonus! Does that mean no discount?

It might need a bit of top soil but flags are often laid on soil with a layer of sand so it is probably not far off good to go once the flags are lifted

They might be laid on sand/soil but there is the chance they might be onto a rough mortar and hardcore mix too. Often the flags I’ve seen laid on sand tend to dip and rise a bit over time so they’re not completely level. Those ones look very flat. Just my 2p. It wouldn’t be hard to lift one and see.

Thanks. We’re hopefully viewing it this week so can have a closer look then. The house is empty so not sure if the owners are around to ask either

Are you wanting to get rid of the poured concrete in front of the garage as well? We got rid of a load last year, working out about £20 per square meter for a man with a digger to break it up and take it away. We then spread top soil (we paid £45 a tonne delivered) and grass seeded. Turf if about £3.50-4 per square meter at the moment (you can get cheaper but we only use net free turf).

I think we need to physically see it before knowing what we would do with the concrete in front of the garage. We drove past it earlier and the drive is long and doesn’t actually align with the garage. So I think we probably would turn it into lawn too. Good to know it’s not too difficult. I tend to assume these things are a lot of cost and effort!

They can be expensive if you want to get someone in to do it all for you. We reclaimed about 75 sqm of concrete back to lawn. We had help with lifting the concrete because we didn't have the tools or the time, but we bought and spread the soil and seed and did some tidying up bits. Cost us less than 2k altogether (we also had very thick concrete and some complicated bits to work around). If we'd paid a company to do the whole job it would have been about 4k to get to the same point.
It's not difficult work to do, just can be mucky and time consuming.

I think it would be fairly cheap OP if you could lift the slabs yourself. You'll probably find you can flog them on a local selling site too. If you can visualise where you are having flower beds, patio etc, that will save on turf costs.

Thanks. It seems doable. Even if we pay for some people do some of the heavier bits. Basically, not a stumbling block to buying the house if the rest is good!

@Lordofmyflies

I’m not sure there’s much need for flowerbeds in what will be a football pitch for 99% of the time 😂

I'd be inclined to remove the paving slabs, topping the whole area with some mulch / known good soil (The soil under the flagstones is likely to be barren of nutrients), Then rotovate it in. Then, after maybe 3 weeks, roller it to make it flat, and get turf and sprinklers on a timer in.