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We are thinking of patio'ing our entire garden because we use it a lot and the grass wears out, gets muddy, is wet all winter and no one wants to cut it. We're also putting up a garage at the rear. We'll probably get a contractor in but I wanted to double check drainage solutions. The...

I've set out my room as it will be for the next ten years. The radiators have been removed as the house will be re plumbed anyway. The only place to fit the radiator now is on a wall that has two desks against it. Can the radiator be under the desk or do I need to leave a gap behind the desk and...

I did some research and lots of people have had the same question. Two solutions look plausable to me: 1. There's a product called stop gap, designed for the purpose and is cheap. 2. Caulk I might go for the caulk. As for relaying the boards, I may agree it's the only way, but no...

I wanted to leave bare floor boards in one of the rooms. Is this a good idea? I remember when living in Paris quite a few of the houses had this. But the floorboards here have 5mm gaps between them. How best to fill the gaps? I've seen one house where thin wood bits were pushed in. One...

Ok. Can you suggest anything else?

We were thinking something cheap like crazy paving. Yes, surface run off is an issue, I don't think the neighbour will appreciate it being dumped into her garden! It's a serious issue I imagine. Would a grill covered U channel along the lower side of the garden suffice and we take it to a...

So this is what's been answered: 1/ If I'm using sub base do I put that on top of the top soil, or do I remove the top soil first? r896neo says its to be removed 2/ What substrate? Is there anything cheaper that MOT1? Maybe just plain non clay soil? It needs to be MOT1 so it can be...

Top soil just seems like fertile and valuable soil that should be kept. But ok, if the norm is to dispose of it then sure. We're paving the garden so it's of no use. I just fel;t guilty about getting rid of it.

Would be good to know if there's a technical document that just states this straight!

I've had a few specs for this now! A local company specified the following: 12" around sides 9" in the middle 1 layer steel mesh No expansion joints :/

Ok, so I'm thinking that I can only part level the garden, just improve the situation. 1/ If I'm using sub base do I put that on top of the top soil, or do I remove the top soil first? 2/ What substrate? Is there anything cheaper that MOT1? Maybe just plain non clay soil? 3/ Do I then...

Thanks Tony! No need for steel or expansion joints? This slab will need to take the weight of vehicles and is quite large.

So the garden is 30m x 5.5m. It is fairly level length ways. Width ways there's a 0.34m difference. I need to think about what to do...

I would have thought this has been asked a million times but I still can't find any detailed specification. We want a 65 sq m slab (5.5m x 12m). The slab will hold a pre-fab garage of approx 30 sq m and an outdoor area for vehicles. So questions: How thick should it be, considering that...

I'll try to survey it tonight with a laser level. It's raining now and the laser level doesn't work outdoors during the day.

Well the original plan we submitted under building regs was for a 60sqm breezeblock garage. It's only after the council said that we need deep foundations/piles that the price made it unfeasible and we decided to look at a small regs exempt prefab with an extra sheltered area. In fairness to...

I don't know yet. I'm imagining it will need expansion joints and reinforcement but I don't know on the specs. The council gave me some typical specs, plus I've got some DIY books on the subject. I've also got a chartered engineer friend but he's already done a lot of favours and I think he only...

This may be the answer I was looking for (but hoping not to hear ;) So does this mean that I need to remove soil on one side, dispose of it, and raise the other side using proper hardcore?

The issue with building regs is that they want us to have the garage on 2.5m foundations due to some high water demand trees in the area. At one point they were even saying we might need piles. After doing the costings we decided to just do what every other house on the street has.... a raft...

We can go 1 foot apart and keep the foundation separate to be sure :) We're also using a modular building system so we can modify/dismantle/resize without huge losses, or can take down the second structure.