Garden needing work

milliebear00001

Hi there

Thinking of buying a house that has a fairly large garden. Unfortunately, the guy selling has several vans and so has converted much of the back garden to a tarmac drive. The garden has a small lawn immediately behind the house, then the strip of drive crossing the width of the garden, then (bizarrely) another very narrow strip of grass and another tarmac drive at the top!

I would like to keep the drive at the top of the garden, but change the large tarmac area back to grass. The whole garden also needs fencing and a gate for the drive to make it private and child-safe.

I have no idea how to get rid of the tarmac and am presuming I need to pay somebody - but who does this sort of work? Do I need a landcape garden firm? I would need them to do the fencing I assume? What sort of costs am I looking at for a 50 x 30 foot garden?

Lotus-eater

Blimey, do you really want that house?

The tarmac will have a deep base made of rock and rubbish, I would have thought that would all need digging out before it can be made into a garden, then carted away in skips. Then you need to buy topsoil, at least for the top few inches, the stuff underneath can be cheaper stuff.

Get a fencing firm to quote for the fencing, it can be expensive depending on what you want. You can get a variety of firms to quote for the digging up of the tarmac, but then you will probably need a landscapers to put down the soil and lay a lawn, unless you want to do that yourself.
You may find a firm to do the lot.

sassyblue

Hi milliebear, groundworks companies could remove all the tarmac, not sure about replacing with top soil though but definitely landscapers for top soil and fencing.

Be prepared for the ground underneath all this to be rock solid, so it will need rotavating if you want to plant over it again. :eek:

I would say it'll cost upto £5k probably more if you live in a city.

milliebear00001

The house is perfect in every other way and I would put up with the garden as it is rather than lose it! Actually, £5000, although a lot of money, isn't as bad as I feared!

Thanks for your advice.

sassyblue

milliebear00001 wrote: »

The house is perfect in every other way and I would put up with the garden as it is rather than lose it! Actually, £5000, although a lot of money, isn't as bad as I feared!

Thanks for your advice.

That's great! Hope you manage to get the house then

amcluesent

>The tarmac will have a deep base made of rock and rubbish<

Bit of a long-shot, but try offering hardcore on Freecycle, pointing out it needs lifting!