Patio & Dwarf Wall Greenhouse

[VDubDan]

Since renovating our house, we've been very slowly working round the garden. We did a small extension a few years back (documented somewhere on here), then a deck and garden wall project and now we finally came to the side of the house.

This was always a bit "no mans" land - it wasn't really anything when we moved in, there was about 150mm of gravel, then under some of that we found some slabs and lots of dirt. The temporary shed we had ended up over here, and we just mainly ignored it.

Until now. I'll warn you now, a lot of this project is probably over engineered/over-thought - it's just how I am!

 

[VDubDan]

I don't really have a before photo, because like I say it was a bit of a no mans land. This is the deck, wall and extension I did and you can see the area to the right. The grass just kinda slopes down into dirt and wonky slabs

 

[VDubDan]

I actually didn't intend to start this project. My wife asked for better demarcation of the lawn, so I figured a little sleeper wall/step would do and let us tidy up the lawn. We always wanted the lawn level all the way round, then a step down onto a patio.

So I picked up some sleepers, and some retaining posts and started putting them in:

 

[VDubDan]

Then, the more we looked at it the more we hated the mess. She'd always wanted a "Proper" greenhouse, and due to some life events, it felt like now was the time to spend some money and treat the place. So in comes the plant, and I get to clearing the site.

There was so. much. dirt. And it's all crap topsoil type dirt, so it needed to come out.

The dirt had really put me off doing much with it in the past - I don't know if it's naturally there, or if it's been dumped at some point but the whole thing is just a big pit of dirt.

I actually wasn't hugely brave with the digger, because I knew whatever I dug out would need bringing back up and I ended up hand digging a bunch. We still filled a grab wagon though - so it was worthwhile, I just should have comitted more and gone for it

 

[VDubDan]

After that, we settled on a greenhouse company and they sent me their dimensions for the walls. So I made some decisions - in particular, that I didn't want a typical concrete base. I just hate that look of buildings plonked on a base, with concrete showing. And, secondly, that I wanted to dig down to ensure I was well into the firm sand layer, but trench fill to minimise brick laying.

You can see from this pic how poor the ground still is in places, and that's still well below finished floor height for the patio. It's hard to visualise, but trust me.

This is, undoubtedly over engineered and over the top but 1. I'm using volumetric concrete and they have a min order of 1 cube. So I dug deep enough to be very happy, and I used my cube!

 

[VDubDan]

When I built my extension I ran some 110mm drainage and there were a few things I wasn't happy with - especially in the context of building a patio.

I wasn't very happy with rodding access, especially for the toilet which was on a T, and I needed some scope to plumb in ACO drains and a drain in the greenhouse. So while I waited on bricks, I made some modifications.

Firstly, I put in an In-Line gully for the greywater - partly for rodding, partly because of the taps

And then I put in a new access chamber, and removed the Tee for the toilet

Exciting stuff!

 

[VDubDan]

With that done, I got some blocks down (yes, those are still below FFL!) and started building

Rustic bricks, naturally, to cover up my bricklaying. It's "inkeeping"

 

[VDubDan]

Then we got battered by those storms just before Christmas, so that was nice!

Being in the middle of this whole thing, and it being grim and cold, I'd stopped building by that point and opted to just pay somebody to do the fence. It was always on the list, it just...didn't need to be then!

And a fine job they did

 

[VDubDan]

Have to admit, after christmas my motivation was pretty low, so it took me a while to get back out. It was still too cold to bother laying bricks (bearing in mind how slow I am) so I mainly tinkered clearing the site. Kept finding massive chunks of concrete, random rubbish etc.

One of the tasks I got done was figuring out my new drainage

 

[VDubDan]

Finally it warmed up and I was able to finish the bricklaying

I'm not unhappy with it tbh, spot the brick I knocked while it was still a bit green (and I still haven't sorted!)

 

[VDubDan]

With that, I also finished up the drainage

 

[VDubDan]

And finally, the marked the end of the "prep" phase, and we are onto rebuilding.

One thing that doesn't come over at all in the photos is how deep, and undulating the site had ended up - I needed ~300mm of Type 1 MOT, just to come up to even think about starting slabs in some places. To be clear, to get the slope we wanted, and step into the garden where we wanted, there'll be a step onto the existing slabs - so don't think I'm trying to work to their level.

You're almost up to date by this point!

 

[VDubDan]

Something I just want to say for anybody reading this down the line who maybe hasn't undertaken such projects, I'm glossing over a *lot*. You're seeing months of effort (Well, on weekends to suit me!) condensed into a handful of photos. In particular, I spent a LOT of time agonising over things like levels, the finished floor height, how the patio would interact with the greenhouse etc.

I'm a massive over thinker and a bit of a worrier - I think these threads can make it sound like we just wing it, or have it all in our head. Most definitely not the case for me!

 

[VDubDan]

So, as per my previous post - my next big mission was to get the site to some semblance of flat and at the height we needed. Another thing I've completely glossed over is I've discovered my cast iron soil pipe is leaking and that needs fixing, but I'm on a time constraint with the greenhouse because it has been ordered and I need the site to be safe and suitable for those guys.

Firstly, I revisited the patio height and tried to lock in the finished floor level, so that I knew where I was aiming with my Type 1 MOT. Our patio plans are a bit up in the air and we may want cobbles, and given how much I need to lay anyway, I decided that we'd just come a little low for now, basically to the point I could put the ACO's in when I wanted.

Also finished prepping the greenhouse floor at this point, getting rid of the remaining soil and down to firm sand

Then we ordered a lot of Type 1 MOT. 15 bags in all. And a digger and a dumper, because, well, just no!

Even with the equipment, it was a tough, tough, weekend. I got a heavy duty Belle wacker, which did NOT make light work of things

But, slowly, over the course of 2 days we were able to move the vast majority of it and get the site to a much better state, and also do the greenhouse floor

It's really hard to stress what a difference it makes - firstly, just not to be up and down, over pipes, down dips but also to put all the stuff that should be underground back there!

 

[VDubDan]

Next up, was sand binding for DPM:

I also put in 50mm of insulation (A controversial move, *shrug*) and then we got the concrete in

I'm no concrete finisher, but fortunately it's getting covered. It's actually hilariously flat, considering, apart from that back corner. I put a level over the rest and it's pretty acceptable - but pretty immaterial!

And that's today! Greenhouse is due soon, hopefully - need to sort out the tiles. And I need to switch gears and look at this cast iron pipe