Levelling a lawn

[mariodecristofano]

Towards the bottom of my approx 90ft garden, a slight left-right dip occurs making the ground a bit uneven. Enough to prohibit the installation of say a Greenhouse, without some type of levelled foundation.

I do indeed want to install a Greenhouse in the spring, and wondered the best way of levelling off approx 8 x 6 ft square space ready for said erection.

Should I use a wooden frame base? Should I landscape that bit using soil and a border foundation?

I have no idea?

 

[wrathkeg]

depends how uneven it is I think, and what kind of base you want (e.g. concrete, flags, gravel etc). You might be able to level it up with hardcore, using an edging of some kind if necessary, then build your base on that.

 

[mariodecristofano]

Thanks

I think as the dip is only slight, using hardcore with some edging will probably do the trick. I just wanted to confirm my thinking.

Thank you for the reply.

 

[wrathkeg]

probably best to take off any vegetation first, before the hardcore.

you might want to look at the page on edging here,

http://www.pavingexpert.com/edging07.htm

as well as the links on the bottom of that page.

 

[mariodecristofano]

thank you. It's lawned, so I'm going to remove the lawn layer, and then dig out the raised area to level, and then fill with hardcore/aggregate for a potential concrete base. Should do the trick.

Will check those links out now.

Thank you for the reply & advice, appreciated.

 

[wrathkeg]

Personally for a greenhouse I would lay slabs/flags as the base. With slabs you can take your time and make sure you get it right: concrete doesn't tend to wait! And while of course you still need to measure things out, you don't need all the formwork for slabs like you do with concrete.

 

[mariodecristofano]

If I leveled the lawn then and laid slabs, would I be able to just drop them onto a sand base or cement them in too? I take it I can just then drill down into the slabs when erecting the greenhouse?

 

[mariodecristofano]

I'll post up a couple of picks of the terrain and the greenhouse I'm buying, just so you can get the jist. Appreciate its a bit difficult when you can't see a pic. Thanks again for your advice.

 

[wrathkeg]

I would lay the slabs on a sand and cement mix, on top of the hardcore (see the bits on paving expert about laying slabs). Not sure about the drilling into them, as I haven't done that. One possibility that comes to mind is whether they might crack, especially if you are drilling near an edge.

 

[WalksWithTurkeys]

I'd put down a concrete base, that way you can keep the soil in the greenhouse, which is much better than containers, less watering for example.

 

[wrathkeg]

sorry, yes I had assumed OP wanted a base over the whole of the area (so a floor to the greenhouse) but I see now that's probably not right.