Reinstalling a garden?

TBagpuss

I haven't done it yet, but am planning to. My new-to-me home currently has tarmac at the front, and shingle at the back. For me, the house ticked enough of my other boxes that it was worth buying it knowing that I'd have to spend time and money to get rid of all the tarmac etc.
Obviously cost will depend on the size and the accessibility of the garden. Mine isn't going to be excessively expensive, and no doubt if you are able to do some of the work yourself you can lower the cost.

moneyistooshorttomention

Nobbie1967 wrote: »

you could leave the hardcore where the lawn will be and just dump some topsoil on top. All very do-able

That would leave problems for OP/future owners when it came to digging up the lawn and replacing it with plants instead - ie as the hardcore would have to be removed at that point.

moneyistooshorttomention

TBagpuss wrote: »

I haven't done it yet, but am planning to. My new-to-me home currently has tarmac at the front, and shingle at the back. For me, the house ticked enough of my other boxes that it was worth buying it knowing that I'd have to spend time and money to get rid of all the tarmac etc.
Obviously cost will depend on the size and the accessibility of the garden. Mine isn't going to be excessively expensive, and no doubt if you are able to do some of the work yourself you can lower the cost.

I'm in a similar position to this. Am still waiting to be able to save up the money I need to remove the tarmac (or at least the majority of it) from the front. I will then make it into a proper garden.

So - what sort of area are you talking about (ie how many square feet?) and how much do you anticipate it will cost you?

goodwithsaving

We've got this problem at the end of our garden. We're going to pay someone to come in and take it up. Everyone keeps telling us to keep it as is but it isn't their garden and we don't want slabs, we want more grass!

JP08

It can be done - but you'll probably require machinery ... a mini digger at minimum

I've posted this in another thread before, but we had the front garden re-done - as it was completely a gravelled space used to park 5 cars and a large camper van. Cost us about £5k in the end - I'm sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me I overpaid - , but that did involve removing 20 tonnes of gravel and hardcore (18" deep of the stuff for quite a bit of the garden), bringing in 16 tonnes of topsoil, sorting all the levels - the garden is a 1 in 10 slope - etc, and laying a block pave drive. Having someone doing the work who has his own tipper truck saves a lot of aggro with skips and deliveries etc.

Three years on you wouldn't know that the front garden had ever been a "car park". I reckon that we'll see the outlay back just in "curb appeal" as, when or if we ever sell.

goodwithsaving

JP08 wrote: »

It can be done - but you'll probably require machinery ... a mini digger at minimum

I've posted this in another thread before, but we had the front garden re-done - as it was completely a gravelled space used to park 5 cars and a large camper van. Cost us about £5k in the end - I'm sure someone will be along in a minute to tell me I overpaid - , but that did involve removing 20 tonnes of gravel and hardcore (18" deep of the stuff for quite a bit of the garden), bringing in 16 tonnes of topsoil, sorting all the levels - the garden is a 1 in 10 slope - etc, and laying a block pave drive. Having someone doing the work who has his own tipper truck saves a lot of aggro with skips and deliveries etc.

Three years on you wouldn't know that the front garden had ever been a "car park". I reckon that we'll see the outlay back just in "curb appeal" as, when or if we ever sell.

Did you get builders in, or can a handyman do the job? Ours is probably 3x3m so I'm hoping it won't be that expensive. Just concrete too, no gravel.

JP08

We got a local gardening firm in. I dug a hole in old front driveway, saw how deep the hardcore went and realised this was way beyond a DIY job if it was to happen in a reasonable (read acceptable to the missus !) timescale. The main guy was also Marshalls certificated, so did the drive as well - and we got the full Marshalls guarantee against any workmanship problems into the bargain.

The plot was about 8m x 15m, so quite a bit bigger than what you're talking about. To be honest, I think I'd tackle that myself - especially if, as one of the above posters suggested, some of it were being retained as a seating area. Even if you don't like the blocks, lifting them and putting something else down in that kept area should be easy as the base is already there.

MisterB1959

artificial lawn is the way to go, I have it on a couple of rental front gardens and the tenants love it and so do I, because there is no maintenance. I also covered over some old concrete at the back of the house with a piece from an old sports pitch (hockey). the tenant was a bit dubious at first, BUT now loves it after having lived with it for a couple of years. she and the kids can go out even after its just rained and it soon becomes dry, all it takes it a little hoovering every couple of weeks. the sports pitch though has no pile and doesn't remotely look like grass but then again it doesn't look like a helicopter landing pad either


you could lay artificial turf straight on top of the paving, which will save you the cost of taking it up?

princeofpounds

If you have access it is not going to be the most expensive job ever. Equipment hire is not THAT expensive, nor is labour.


Wouldn't be surprised if the cost of topsoil and turfing is actually more than the removal.


Definitely not a dealbreaker to me as long as a couple of grand is incorporated in the price and you can take 2 days off to manage the job. But I wouldn't bother if it wasn't a house I particularly liked about others out there.

TBagpuss

moneyistooshorttomention wrote: »

I'm in a similar position to this. Am still waiting to be able to save up the money I need to remove the tarmac (or at least the majority of it) from the front. I will then make it into a proper garden.

So - what sort of area are you talking about (ie how many square feet?) and how much do you anticipate it will cost you?

The quote I have is a little under £2K, which is for the front garden (removing tarmac and any hard core under it, plus about 4 tonnes of topsoil, and turf, The quote also includes removing a slightly smaller area of shingle from the back garden (which doesn't have such good access) and putting down some topsoil and turf there. As well as the actual surfaces my quote also includes putting up a fence and gate at the front, and replacing 5.5 fence panels at the back, so it is not just the garden.

Front is about 22x25 foot

I haven't got the quote in front of me but from memory about £750 is labour and the rest is materials