Raising Level of Driveway

LUHG1878

I would like to raise the level of my driveway, it seems straightforward in theory, but I obviously won't to do it properly, so...

The garden level at the front of our house is approx 6ft higher than at the back. To the side of the house there is a patch of grass, and then the driveway.

The patch of grass is level(ish), as there's a partition wall that separates front and back, which then returns at a right angle towards the street/pavement.

Our driveway runs from the street to the rear of our property, between this partition wall, and the boundary wall we share with our neighbour.

Hope that makes sense so far?

Essentially what I would like to do is extend the partition wall, which separates front and back garden, to the boundary wall, and then raise the level of the existing driveway to street level, which is the same level as the grass.

This would then give us a level driveway, as opposed to the very steep drive we currently have and, by removing the grass, would give us a much larger parking area at the side of the house.

However, I have a number of questions;

1) do I need planning consent, or would the work require a building warrant and inspection by the council when complete?

2) what type of material could I use to fill the void? I would like to build a double garage on the levelled drive at some point in the future, it would also need to support the weight of 2 cars, so i'm concerned about using material that would sink over time.

3) what about the existing drive surface, it's just a tarred driveway, would I need to dig this out before infilling the void, for drainage purposes, or whatever?

4) what about drainage? what would be the best way to ensure good drainage? could I simply raise the level of the drive to slightly higher than street level and angle the new surface so that any water run-off effectively runs into the street and down the public drain, or do I need to incorporate some sort of drainage system when filling the void?

5) would I need to build a wall running back to front, parallel with the boundary wall, within a few inches say, so that the boundary wall is not being used to support the infill?

Is there anything else I need to consider?

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Thanks.

LUHG1878

Hi, thanks for the reply, but i'm not sure I follow.

I have a retaining wall that runs perpendicular to the drive, from the back garden this is 8ft high, from the front about 2ft high, so the ground level is about 6ft difference front to back.

I am hoping to extend this wall by about 4m, the width of the driveway, till it meets/joins either the boundary wall or a new retaining wall that runs parallel to the boundary wall.

Surely if the DPC in the proposed new wall is at the same level as in the existing wall i'm proposing it extends, then there will be no issue?

cyclonebri1

sorry 2 posts got muddled, I've removed and re-posted below.

getmore4less

What's on the other side of the boundary wall?

How do you propose to provide access to the back with a 6ft drop?

If you plan a garage probably worth starting that at the same time at least all the below ground requirements.

tacpot12

One option would be to use a number of SUDS modules llike those available from http://www.keytec.co.uk/keytec-polypipe-suds/

This would fix the drainage and infill questions in one go.

You will need to take up old drive but might be able to reuse the material somewhere in the construction on the new one.

Put down a pourous surface on top and you're done. A brochure for one such surface is available at http://www.tarmac.com/media/957194/topmix-permeable-brochure-march-2016.pdf

You might even be able to harvest the water under the drive for use in the garden.

Good luck

wrightk

as far as im aware with regard to regulation you should be fine with laying a non permeable top layer so long as that is what you have already. If you have a permeable drive and want to change to non permeable that is when issues occur.

With regards to levelling out something like mot type 1 will be what you need. Although you will have to work every 100mm and compact with a roller or whacker plate. If you have a very very deep area to fill it might be worth speaking to your local quarry about a larger graded stone for the deepest areas and putting that down first before your mot type 1

cyclonebri1

I think you need planning permission these days to extend the amount of hard standing you have, but you likely will for a double garage so hit it within the same fee/application and you only have to start 1 aspect of it for the time constraint to become nullified.

I don't fully understand your plans but remember if the garage is attached to the house it needs to be a minimum 150 lower than the house floor and must not bridge the DPC. The drive also, if it abuts the house, has to be kept 150mm min below dpc level.

If the garage is attached to the house or less than 1mtre from the boundary, you also need building regs approval

Furts

The unfortunate truth is many consumers think this work can be answered by a post on a forum.

I would not entertain giving guidance without working drawings and levels. I say this because this work is everyday bread and butter to me. Equally the survey, drawings and levels would be easily undertaken by those with the knowledge, so this is nothing special to me or anybody with similar knowledge.

The bottom line is retaining walls, drives, levels, compaction, drainage... are all technical processes beyond the capabilities of the majority people. They are also beyond the capabilities of typical technicians/designers/extension "architects" and similar. Add in Planning Permission, Building Regulations, and any knock on with Highways, access, neighbours...the list goes on and becomes more involved.

Equally a competent groundworks contractor could give an answer, provided they have the technical expertise to hand.

By all means take on the work, but you cannot expect realistic, comprehensive answers from a Forum...which if you are honest you should already be sensing. Equally apologies if this has upset anyone, because it is not intended to do so.

LUHG1878

Hi All,

Many thanks for the replies.

@getmore4less - my neighbours garden is the other side of the boundary wall, which is why i'm wary of using it to retain any infill. I'm thinking I might need to build a retaining wall parallel with it.

Also, our house is detached and their is access to the back garden down steps at the other side of the house.

@tacpot12 - the polypipe suds solution looks a bit over-complicated for my requirements. There's a demolition company near where I live that sells recycled aggregates and stones, I was thinking I could just use them for the infill.

@wrightk - that was my thought too, larger grade infill at the deepest point, then layer it up with smaller great infill.

@cyclonebri1 - I will check with the council planning dept. just to be on the safe side. However, the garage will be completely detached from the house.

Once the driveway is raised it will give me a level surface of approx 14m wide between the boundary wall and the side of my house, which is where I plan to locate the new garage.

@Furts - I understand people won't be able to give specific guidance, but what I was looking for was general advice.

I will of course speak to the council before I undertake any work, and I will also employ a competent builder to construct the retaining walls.

However, I want to be able to do a chunk of the work myself to keep costs down, which is partly why I was looking for some general advice.

I also wanted the advice to help me better understand whats required, to ensure that I wasn't missing anything, and also to ensure that when I do speak with the council and the builder, i'll be able to ask the right questions and, hopefully, i'll have a better understanding of what they are talking about when I get their answers.


Thanks to all that responded, much appreciated.

phil24_7

You will likely need to employ a structural engineer and/or an architect to design this properly.

You will need proper retaining walls built on proper footings ( for anywhere where there is a change in ground levels) so anything that is there already will be next to useless. You would also need proper drainage around the outside of the retaining walls.

You could go for a block and beam floor (for the garage) which means you wouldn't have to infill, you could also end up with an unfinished storage area under the garage if you put an opening in the back.

It could turn out more expensive than you though as you will need to start it as if you are going to build the garage now else you will likely run into problems further down the line.

getmore4less

Another option is to consider a garage with a basement.

Even if not usable as a garden room masses of storage.

one thing we don't do enough of these days is make use of the space under out houses.