Entire garden decked 30x10 foot - whats involved in removing it?

[HangerLaneGyratorySystem]

Hi looking at buying a ground floor flat with no rear access - decking is fence to fence, I know the ground under will be compacted but what do I need to be thinking about? Removing it all through the flat, getting topsoil and turf in (and man do it it all) - is there something I am missing?

Is the decking rotten?

There may be vermin underneath, perhaps.

The usual way would be to have a skip and remove everything that way, but since you can’t do that, it looks as though it will have to be removed through the property. Not an easy task, I imagine.

Might not just be the decking. Might be old patio, rubbish, a broken greenhouse etc under the deck. It'll be a lot to get through the house.

It was probably added to conceal old cracked or broken concrete.

Carrying decking boards out through the house is not too difficult, but if you have to break up concrete it will have to go out one bucket at a time, and is heavy.

One cause of broken concrete is sinking of the ground caused by broken and leaking drains and gullies, which are very common in houses built before 1945. The decking presumably hides what's beneath, but do a soil pipe, kitchen drain, or gutter downpipe go down there?

Bugger. So it's not straightforward. Decking could be hiding a multitude of sins - how would I know, have to get the surveyor to look do you think? Yes there is a visible gutter downpipe going under the decking, which appears to be attached to next door's extension.

Our decking is hiding a load of old tree stumps

Our decking was hiding nothing - we had some rats though - but they are shy wee things. We got our handyman to remove it and he still goes on about how horrible that job was 3 years later!😂Lots of spiders and rotten wood.

Took us ages to remove ours when we moved in last year don’t know who put it down but it wasn’t easy to remove and was a nightmare. Luckily nothing living underneath it.

Our decking hides sloping land

We had exactly this situation when we moved into our house. The entire garden was decked, and we also have no rear access. We hired a handyman to take up the decking, and then offered it for free on Freecycle to anyone prepared to come and get it. I was astonished how popular a listing was! Ours was concealing an old patio, and totally compacted earth - I think the decking had been put down not too long after the house was built 20+ years ago, as the earth was full of concrete and nails. Don’t regret getting rid of it for a minute though!

Thanks all, did a viewing yesterday and the decking had been there maybe 20 years? There was a fair old "drop" under it (you could see from next door's garden that stepped down) - it also went under and beyond a fence at the bottom of the garden into another property and kept "dropping" as it went - looks like some time ago the large garden was divided into 4 uneven plots to serve the 4 flats in the block. The flat was crap anyway but the garden decided me, I think it would be too much work/too much of a risk to start trying to remove it.