Following on from our ‘Garden Renovation’ background and project planning post the other week we are now going to document how we went about starting work on our garden (We’d recommend you read the previous article before this one if you haven’t already).
Lorna and Norrie went back and forth on how best to attack the plans for the new layout and it was decided we would clear the site as best as possible - getting rid of a lot of concrete, slabs and blocks whilst also cutting out a section of the grass area which would eventually be part of the decking space.
Clutter Island!
The first stage therefore was to clear the site of as much rubbish as we could. We did not fathom there to be quite as much clutter and sheer tonnage as there turned out to be. It just kept coming!
Neil broke up all the concrete in the garden as best he could and shifted it to the side of the driveway in anticipation of ordering a skip.
Demolition Driveway
Neil and Norrie added to the concrete by demolishing the driveway of all slabs and edging stones to uncover the earth below. As the pictures show there is still a long way to go in terms of setting out levels and creating the depth for a retaining wall at this stage.
We hired a skip for a week and proceeded to fill it with an assortment of rubble, soil and wood. We perhaps over filled it in the end and the skip company perhaps wasn’t best pleased with the weight.
Neil and Norrie also took to the grass section which is to be replaced by decking. This involved taking down the surrounding wall and digging to floor level.
This task made us aware of the clothes pole, which you can see just above the grass cut out in the picture below, and we decided it would need to come down sooner than expected as it was in the way.
Some of the soil from the dig we put in the skip, the rest we put behind the shed at the side of the garden.
Pole Chancer
Lorna’s dad, Jim, kindly made himself available one day to help with the removal of the clothes pole. He and Neil worked for a couple of hours, at least, digging and drilling into the concrete block at the bottom of the clothes pole. It was tough and a bit of a nightmare job considering it was one clothes pole that they were trying to remove.
When their hard work looked to be paying off and the pole started moving around… up stepped Lorna to pull the thing out the hole! Jim and Neil watched on exhausted as Lorna took the glory.
Tree Roots
The digging around the driveway, grass section and clothes pole unearthed a bit of a problem for the job moving forward. Tree roots…
The job was not going to move forward until we dealt with this problem. Thankfully, friends of ours, David and Pamela Hutchison, put us in touch with Ronnie Barker who came out one Sunday to investigate. He then set us up with a stump grinder and operator.
Our next blog article will cover our suppliers to date so we will reveal how the stump was taken away next post.
Next post….Site Levels, Spreadsheets and Suppliers
Having agreed on the layout of the new garden and having made a start at clearing the site we were keen to break the job down into stages and to research potential suppliers for each section of the renovation. Neil made an excel spreadsheet that looked to keep tabs on and cover every cost of the job, from skips required to stump grinders to decking and paving blocks.
We quickly realised our budget was going to be very tight, if not unrealistic, but it gave us a target to try and stay near to at least!
We will share all next blog post.
