flattening a back garden?

seatzie

We're thinking of flattening a bit of our back garden rather than having it in the 3 levels its currently in. Hopefully if I try and describe it you can get the picture.

Basically when you walk out our back door theres a paved strip roughly 40 feet wide left to right by say 9 feet in front. Then you go up 4 steps and theres a grass strip roughly 40 feet wide left to right by 14 feet in front, then from the grass level theres a wall approx 4 feet high and the garden then goes up at an angle of about 70 degrees to the rear of the houses "above" us at the back.

I realise this last bit at 70 degree angle is used to support the houses at the back, but we'd be interested in flattening the middle section so that it was at ground level with the paved terraced area. However I am not sure if the 4 foot wall is built from the grass up on the middle level or does actually extend down to the ground level of the paved area. The biggest problem I see is supporting/extending that wall down if the middle bit had about 4 feet of height taken out of it.

Has anyone done anything similar and how much did it cost, what other issues were there etc and am I being naieve thinking its a mini digger, take the middle level out with supports for the back wall, add any support thats needed then grass the new lower area? I'm guessing our local building control officer is probably a starting point?

oh yeah and in these days of credit crunch whats the chances of me putting any cost on my mortgage (40% ltv at present)

ameliarate

The garden sounds lovely to me, why do you want to change it? Surely if you take the soil our of the middle bit to flatten it to the level of the bottom bit the top bit will collapse?

andrew-b

A picture might help to give a better idea what it looks like. Presumably there are boundaries to the left and right which you will also need to take into consideration - neighbours might not be too happy if you undermine all the fences. You could replace the bottom two levels with just a slope but in my opinion it would be best left the way it is (easier to cut grass that is level than sloping). Do you know what soil your on. Here when you dig down a couple of feet you hit solid chalk which would make your sort of earthmoving much more tricky. You could dig an exploratory hole next to the 4 foot wall which will tell you how far the wall goes down and what sort soil type you have.

Are your neighbours gardens the same as yours? Any of them done what your proposing as this would give you a fair idea if it's possible.

Andy

jennifernil

I would leave well alone. The wall you mention will only be enough to support/retain what is above it, you cannot dig away in front of it and extend it down, you would have to demolish it and build a big, thick retaining wall. You do not even want to contemplate the cost of that!

Also, as said above, you cannot undermine your neighbours' gardens, so the new retaining wall would need to extend down the sides of your garden too.

Incisor

You really need professional advice for this. The job will cost, as will the advice. I doubt that the bank is actually 70 deg, although it might look very steep, but you could say that it is fairly certainly no more than the angle of repose of the soil [what is the soil like BTW?]. So you could continue the line of the bank down to meet the level of the ground next to the house, using some of the spoil to build the bank up in front of the existing wall and taking very good care not to dig into the line of the bank.

Take advice. What I have given above is no more than an idea to take advice on.

seatzie

Thanks for the replies everyone

amerilate - not me, the missus would like to change it so our 2 year old has a "bigger" play area - I'm happy the way it is lol! women eh!lol

andrew-b good point about the fences hadn't thought of that, only applies one side but good point - actually the middle level is split grass to the right of the steps up, pebbles to the left and when I pulled back some of the pebbles last night it appears the middle level is made up of whatever concrete the builders decided to throw in there to build it up, under the pebbles seems to be a grill type thing presumably for drainage with rough looking concrete underneath, not flat, all shapes lol! I had a look at the neighbours last night, a guy couple of doors down has flattened and extended his middle level but then his wall to the higher level is now about 8-9 feet high. Apparently the neighbours above us got concerned at his plans and got building control in and he had to do more work than he planned which added over £1000 to the cost!

Incisor - yeah you're right the bank probably is 40-45 degrees, 70 is a bit of an exaggeration

To be honest you have all convinced me that its far more hassle than I need, I think I'll convince the missus to just get the middle level completely grassed, that way at least our DS can have a fully grassed strip to play on as well

Thanks again