garden landscaping -work now complete!

[Guest]

It's looking good Wayne. It's amazing how.much earth is taken out and then how much topsoil back in.

We are thinking of doing similar, but more in an all in one.type approach.

Did you cost up single contractors at all, or just workout how / what you wanted doing on a job by job basis ?

[wanye]

i got quotes a few years ago, and they were wanting silly money (£15k+) to do everything, so when i got a quote for the digger guy the other week on a whim, i booked him straight away (£175 per day taking 3 days, plus however many grab trucks at £250 a time (7 in total - we estimated 3-4 should have been enough originally!)

before i got it dug out, i was trying to get quotes for the concrete, and nobody was getting back to me... it wasnt until i had photos of the flattened area that people even started replying about coming to take a look, even though the plans i gave were exactly the same, just with photos of the old garden/earth there...

should have the retaining wall and concrete done in a couple of weeks, just waiting on a couple more quotes. once thats done, i can do the rest as and when i see something i like is on offer (hoping for some end of season bargains)

[wanye]

heres a quick timelapse of the first 2 days of work this week...

[Guest]

It all looks very industrious ! Fascinating to see it coming along shot by shot.

[Guest]

How.is it going now Wayne? Mine starts on Monday and have promised me a week. Will wait and see !

[wanye]

ok, i finally got round to putting the video footage together!

so stage 1 is complete (kinda)



digging out 200+ tonnes of clay, rock and soil and loading onto 7 grab trucks, flattening and then building a retaining wall and concreting the lot of it! i turned a perfectly nice looking, but completely impractical space that only ever got used when it was being mowed into a blank canvas we can use all year round.

shed, greenhouse and covered cooking area to follow over the coming months (the shed is already built, but im going to raise it a few inches by sticking railway sleepers underneath it so i dont bang my head of the roof beams

i'm not completely happy with the finish of the floor in the main seating area, so i'm waiting on the builder to come up with what they plan on doing to fix it (plus drill some weepholes in the wall, and level off the bit outside the patio door, as water pools literally where you step outside), but otherwise, their work is done


original music by Mark Rolfe - lornatheband/

[wanye]

new plans are raising the shed on sleepers, building a giant planter along the wall next to the ramp to stop people falling off, sticking in a greenhouse (hoping for an end of season bargain) and starting to build out the cooking area - ive started to knock up a design in sketchup to go against the side wall (and then get a roof put in place...

(ive got an ooni koda 16 gas pizza oven arriving soon!)

i now need to learn some basics about how to build it next - tips builders know after a bit of training... how to make it as strong as possible, and how to get the gaps/holes right for the cupboards and stuff.

so i plan on getting 20 railway sleepers delivered (6 to raise the 3x3m shed, 14 to build the 2.4m x 1.2m planter), 1 ton of gravel and 1 ton of soil to backfill the walls and make them suitable to plant stuff - mostly fruit and vegetables, with a herb garden in the lowered wall area next to the cooking station, and enough bricks/mortar to build it out

[Guest]

A garden from far far away ... Love video start.

A significant amount of work went into that. It was hard to grasp the slope inclination before it was all excavated. £15 doesn't seem like quite so out there when you see that !

As for the BBQ, my DH would be extremely jealous. We have a little keter one and a huge range kitchen area like that would be amazing. (With pizza oven)

Congratulations on getting this far. Hope that we still have some Indian summer to enjoy it, but next year you will really reap the benefits. An low maintenance going forwards too.

[wanye]

so far, i've spent about £6k on it all... although i'm currently withholding £2k from the builders until the issues are resolved. so all in, after the last few parts are done, it will all be completed and furnished for under £10k

so far the shed cost £400 (duramax eco 10ft x 10ft metal)

i've spent £120 on lights for the wall and associated switches/cables/plugs/etc - these are the lights i bought... amazon/gp/product/...nguag e=en_GB

i spent £360 on the pizza oven

i got a *massive* garden parasol from b&q for £75 which will go up at the top of the ramp area

the greenhouse i'm looking at is ~£500 - anyone know of a polycarbonate greenhouse that isnt the traditional basic greenhouse shape and costs less or is a better company to buy from? - dancovershop/uk/prod...2m-silver.aspx

i've bought steel loops to attach to the walls in various places so we can put up temporary things like a tarp/sunsail and festoon lights easily

finally, i'm gonna get a large table/benches made for the seating area. like this, but loads bigger. this company made my bed (based down the road in lowdham) and it's so well built, it will last a lifetime.

hopefully he will also be able to build the structure for the covered cooking area - im thinking powder coated black steel box section sloping down off the top of the wall with a gutter attached and a downpipe that feeds into the aco drain along the floor, out to around 2m.

not sure about roof material for it yet - was considering clear polycarbonate, but worried it might warp/melt from the heat of the cooker below, so now i'm thinking metal sheet, but with the fancy roofing rubber sheet stuff on top for protection and to dampen the noise when it rains... any better suggestions?

[2point]

Great project, will look amazing when you are done.