I have put the outside of my house for too long, and it needs attention. I hope I can get some advice here on how to move forward.
Current state of outside front and back. We have no grass. Both front and back are covered in stones. Lots of bush type plants which really we are not bothered in.
What we want - Double driveway at front with a minimal garden/plant area in corner. Grass at rear with decking. A fence on side of house. We have 2 kids ages 5 and 1.5 and right now outside is no safe place for them to play.
I have not contacted any landscaping gardeners as of yet, as I wanted to get a bit of advice here before hand and perhaps get some sort of vague estimate of how much I will be needing to spend.
Fence
We have a very narrow drive down side of house which makes it practically useless to park in it. My garage is full of stuff and I used it as a workshop. Absolute zero intention of ever putting a car in it, and even I did, it would be very impractical as it is very narrow.
Want to put an L shape fence with a door at 6 or 8' high. We live top of a hill and this is a pure wind tunnel. It gets very windy here through the gap between garage and house. Main reason for fence is to make more secure and safer for kids to play in. Secondly I am hoping it might break the wind a bit. As a result I am guessing this will need to have solid foundations.
Here is a very crude basic plan of what I mean;
Now my neighbours driveway is about 5' below as you can possibly see from the above photos. The fence is basic and not very safe for young kids. I want to put a vertical type fence with gaps for some wind. I have decent woodworking skills, and I am quite happy to build the fence myself. My only problem is the foundations. I have tarmac here and I am also not sure where those drains run too. Considering I cannot find any manhole cover, on my property I think the access is in the next door neighbors driveway as he has a square metal manhole cover for accessing drains. This is in line with my gutter/sink drain and his. But as said his driveway is about 5' below mine.
What would be the best tool to hire from a tool hire specialist to make holes for this foundation easy? I am probably thinking I will need 3 or 4 uprights on the side between driveways and 2 for each side of the door, with a further 1 attached to house (probably no found required for this one?) I would say beneath the tarmac is going to be lots of rubble etc. When we got gas put in, they had difficulties drilling up in one go, and had to make a dig in the middle.
Am I even able do this? Do I need any form of planning permission?
Front Garden / Drive
I want to get rid of all this and expand the driveway to fit 2 cars. Then in the corner probably put a minimal plant area etc.
Does anyone have any idea how much I should be expecting to pay someone to come and do all this?
Rear Garden
So what I am thinking is to remove the patio area that juts out. Then put grass all way down garden. In the area behind the garage I am looking to build a small decking area. This is a nice sheltered spot and a nice sun trap on the rare days we get sun. With decking area there is no need for patio. Also as I said above, its quite a windy spot and even on good days this area can be quite windy. Removing it would give a nice grass area for kids to play etc. Regarding current bushes should I just cut these right back to bare minimum.
What would you recommend to remove the patio? Thinking again of hiring something from hire tool specialist. Could I use something similar when doing the fence foundations?
I also will need to put some sort of steps in as right now it is a large step down. Also as you can see I have temporary steps to my garage side door (prev owner removed it, I put one back in pretty cheap, made a thread on here about it at some point)
Now for the rear garden this where I don't think I could do alot of this myself. To me it looks like a lot of work. The biggest hurdle I have is the stones. I really am not sure what is the best route to go down for removing them.
If I was to just get someone in to do the whole lot; remove the patio, remove all the stones, cut all the bushes etc back, build some steps down to grass and steps into garage, and put down soil / roll on grass.
What sort of ball park figure would I be looking at? I don't want to waste local Gardner/landscapers time if its way too much.
And Finally
Thanks for making it this far! I have an issue currently where in very heavy rain and wind I am getting water come in from front corner of the garage door. Recent weather brought in a lot.
There is a channel here to drain water down, but I think something maybe has failed here and water is running straight under. Its odd as it only comes in from that bottom right corner (as you look at it from outside).
Any idea on best way to fix this?
I know there is alot here, but hopefully someone can give me a little bit of advice. Anything is welcome. Thanks!
Current state of outside front and back. We have no grass. Both front and back are covered in stones. Lots of bush type plants which really we are not bothered in.
What we want - Double driveway at front with a minimal garden/plant area in corner. Grass at rear with decking. A fence on side of house. We have 2 kids ages 5 and 1.5 and right now outside is no safe place for them to play.
I have not contacted any landscaping gardeners as of yet, as I wanted to get a bit of advice here before hand and perhaps get some sort of vague estimate of how much I will be needing to spend.
Fence
We have a very narrow drive down side of house which makes it practically useless to park in it. My garage is full of stuff and I used it as a workshop. Absolute zero intention of ever putting a car in it, and even I did, it would be very impractical as it is very narrow.
Want to put an L shape fence with a door at 6 or 8' high. We live top of a hill and this is a pure wind tunnel. It gets very windy here through the gap between garage and house. Main reason for fence is to make more secure and safer for kids to play in. Secondly I am hoping it might break the wind a bit. As a result I am guessing this will need to have solid foundations.
Here is a very crude basic plan of what I mean;
Now my neighbours driveway is about 5' below as you can possibly see from the above photos. The fence is basic and not very safe for young kids. I want to put a vertical type fence with gaps for some wind. I have decent woodworking skills, and I am quite happy to build the fence myself. My only problem is the foundations. I have tarmac here and I am also not sure where those drains run too. Considering I cannot find any manhole cover, on my property I think the access is in the next door neighbors driveway as he has a square metal manhole cover for accessing drains. This is in line with my gutter/sink drain and his. But as said his driveway is about 5' below mine.
What would be the best tool to hire from a tool hire specialist to make holes for this foundation easy? I am probably thinking I will need 3 or 4 uprights on the side between driveways and 2 for each side of the door, with a further 1 attached to house (probably no found required for this one?) I would say beneath the tarmac is going to be lots of rubble etc. When we got gas put in, they had difficulties drilling up in one go, and had to make a dig in the middle.
Am I even able do this? Do I need any form of planning permission?
Front Garden / Drive
I want to get rid of all this and expand the driveway to fit 2 cars. Then in the corner probably put a minimal plant area etc.
Does anyone have any idea how much I should be expecting to pay someone to come and do all this?
Rear Garden
So what I am thinking is to remove the patio area that juts out. Then put grass all way down garden. In the area behind the garage I am looking to build a small decking area. This is a nice sheltered spot and a nice sun trap on the rare days we get sun. With decking area there is no need for patio. Also as I said above, its quite a windy spot and even on good days this area can be quite windy. Removing it would give a nice grass area for kids to play etc. Regarding current bushes should I just cut these right back to bare minimum.
What would you recommend to remove the patio? Thinking again of hiring something from hire tool specialist. Could I use something similar when doing the fence foundations?
I also will need to put some sort of steps in as right now it is a large step down. Also as you can see I have temporary steps to my garage side door (prev owner removed it, I put one back in pretty cheap, made a thread on here about it at some point)
Now for the rear garden this where I don't think I could do alot of this myself. To me it looks like a lot of work. The biggest hurdle I have is the stones. I really am not sure what is the best route to go down for removing them.
If I was to just get someone in to do the whole lot; remove the patio, remove all the stones, cut all the bushes etc back, build some steps down to grass and steps into garage, and put down soil / roll on grass.
What sort of ball park figure would I be looking at? I don't want to waste local Gardner/landscapers time if its way too much.
And Finally
Thanks for making it this far! I have an issue currently where in very heavy rain and wind I am getting water come in from front corner of the garage door. Recent weather brought in a lot.
There is a channel here to drain water down, but I think something maybe has failed here and water is running straight under. Its odd as it only comes in from that bottom right corner (as you look at it from outside).
Any idea on best way to fix this?
I know there is alot here, but hopefully someone can give me a little bit of advice. Anything is welcome. Thanks!
