My garden project phase 2
Discussion
Posting this in case it is of interest to anyone and also as a cry for help / advice from anyone who knows about this stuff.
Following on from building a garage last year (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=&t=2033464) the time has come to get on with phase 2 of the garden.
Specifically Phase 2 is removing a large expanse of tarmac and creating a lawn / patio and some other bits. It currently looks like the pictures below.
The plan is to dig up the existing manky grass and the tarmac back so it is almost level with the end wall of the garage.
Closer to the house (which is permanantly in shade) there will be a gravel area. Over the steps from the extension I will build a deck / frame with steps down onto the new lawn. The tarmac area where the cars are parked will become lawn, save extending the path from the house and the area where the Ariya is which will be a patio (shown in yellow outline paint). Keeping the path and patio is good news as I can leave the base below the tarmac as a foundation for both.
I have not really though through the technicalities of this but have bought a massive road saw and have a digger and dumper arriving on Friday as whatever happens it definitely needs digging.
The vague plan is over the long weekend do all the removal ready for a grab lorry pick up on Tuesday morning, hopefully followed by a topsoil / gravel delivery.
I have driven a digger at Diggerland and know what a dumper truck is so I don't forsee any problems.......
View towards the house
View from upstairs
Following on from building a garage last year (https://www.pistonheads.com/gassing/topic.asp?h=0&f=&t=2033464) the time has come to get on with phase 2 of the garden.
Specifically Phase 2 is removing a large expanse of tarmac and creating a lawn / patio and some other bits. It currently looks like the pictures below.
The plan is to dig up the existing manky grass and the tarmac back so it is almost level with the end wall of the garage.
Closer to the house (which is permanantly in shade) there will be a gravel area. Over the steps from the extension I will build a deck / frame with steps down onto the new lawn. The tarmac area where the cars are parked will become lawn, save extending the path from the house and the area where the Ariya is which will be a patio (shown in yellow outline paint). Keeping the path and patio is good news as I can leave the base below the tarmac as a foundation for both.
I have not really though through the technicalities of this but have bought a massive road saw and have a digger and dumper arriving on Friday as whatever happens it definitely needs digging.
The vague plan is over the long weekend do all the removal ready for a grab lorry pick up on Tuesday morning, hopefully followed by a topsoil / gravel delivery.
I have driven a digger at Diggerland and know what a dumper truck is so I don't forsee any problems.......
View towards the house
View from upstairs
Aluminati said:
I suspect you’ll have a good lorry load to go out. How deep is the sub base under the tarmac ?
Not sure how deep the sub base is. Have ordered two grab lorries for Tuesday morning for a start which I suspect is the minimum I will get away with.My mind has now turned to all the other bits I will need like weed membrane and underground drainage. I will sketch up my plans later for thread comment
Here are some detailed sketches showing the layout now and planned.
Open to any suggestions on layout (other than keeping it as a massive car park and buy more cars, I tried that one and was overruled.)
Also keen to hear how a drain would be connected from the corner of the garage near the wall to the main drain which is on the edge of the current lawn. About a 6m run.
Garden area now
"Planned" layout
Open to any suggestions on layout (other than keeping it as a massive car park and buy more cars, I tried that one and was overruled.)
Also keen to hear how a drain would be connected from the corner of the garage near the wall to the main drain which is on the edge of the current lawn. About a 6m run.
Garden area now
"Planned" layout
Mr Pointy said:
You'll need to support or finish the edge of the Tarmac or it will collapse like it already has - something like a line of pavers or edging blocks. Maybe leave the retained section a bit long so you can trim back when you do the edging.
Good point. I have considered edging as well as between the gravel area and the lawn to avoid a gravelly lawn. Not sure exactly how I will edge the tarmac, Phase 3 of the plan is to remove the remainder and put down a nicer driveway so it does not need to last too long.barryrs said:
You may need to get this tested to check for coal-tar content and if it does contain this, the cart away cost could be quite high.
Worth making enquiries sooner rather than later.
Had a load dug out and removed last year to build the garage and it wasn't a problem so I am assuming it will be OK. The tarmac is not that old (1990s earliest) so is likely alright.Worth making enquiries sooner rather than later.
BigBen said:
I have driven a digger at Diggerland and know what a dumper truck is so I don't forsee any problems.......
Good Man! As someone who told his mate he was 'good on a digger' just so that he got the chance to play all weekend in someone else's garden on a digger they'd hired, if you can style it out for an hour or so as "been a while, it'll come back to me" you'll be fine....BigBen said:
Mr Pointy said:
You'll need to support or finish the edge of the Tarmac or it will collapse like it already has - something like a line of pavers or edging blocks. Maybe leave the retained section a bit long so you can trim back when you do the edging.
Good point. I have considered edging as well as between the gravel area and the lawn to avoid a gravelly lawn. Not sure exactly how I will edge the tarmac, Phase 3 of the plan is to remove the remainder and put down a nicer driveway so it does not need to last too long.That would also stop cars accidently running onto the grass.
You would be best doing this as part of Phase 3, for now 22mm x 75mm Treated Timber Path Edging would be ok
Friday morning a lorry turned up with a digger and dumper onboard. I had a quick digging lesson from the drive which I was too excited to really take in then had a quick go. I soon got confused by the auto bucket change mechnaism and had the bucket half on half off.
The driver also suggested I would probably need a pnumatic breaker, a quick phone call to the hire shop and I went to collect one in the car. On arrival the guys were kind of bemused I was taking it in the car and wanted to know how I would get it out at home. I said I would lift it which they laughed at. It turns out these breakers are made from depleted uranium so it was at least a two man lift. Luckily my mate was coming round so I had some help.......
I spend Friday afternoon and evening at the Cambridge beer festival so no progress.
The driver also suggested I would probably need a pnumatic breaker, a quick phone call to the hire shop and I went to collect one in the car. On arrival the guys were kind of bemused I was taking it in the car and wanted to know how I would get it out at home. I said I would lift it which they laughed at. It turns out these breakers are made from depleted uranium so it was at least a two man lift. Luckily my mate was coming round so I had some help.......
I spend Friday afternoon and evening at the Cambridge beer festival so no progress.
Saturday morning I woke early and drove home from Cambridge, I had not stayed out late as I was looking forward to getting digging. My step son was also keen to have a go early doors before going to his dads for a few days. We did a bit of digging then had some more shennanigans with the bucket lock. As luck would have it you tube had the answer and we were soon up and running. Just in time to do some food shopping (I didn't say earlier but my mrs is recovering from a knee op so is immobile at the moment.)
Later in the day my friend arrived which made a big difference as one of us could be scooping up grass and one on the dumper. The loads were being dumped at the back of the garden for the grab lorry to access on Tuesday. The day was relatively mis-hap free apart from re-arranging the thing the clothes line used to be docked in:
The other surprise was along the boundary of the lawn and the tarmac was four absolutely huge concrete blocks buried in the soil, they looked like a single breeze block from above but turned out to be the size of a microwave, took some getting out but all possible. We then spent quite a lot of time fannying about trying to get it vaguely level, I am not really sure if this was worth the effort or not but we didn't do a bad job. Also removed a raised border which includes "the horrible water feature" that came with the house (pics to follow)
At the end of Saturday the lawn was gone and crucially my friend and I were not not that bad at driving the digger. We went and drank some wine to celabrate.
Tomorrow the tarmac destruction begins
Later in the day my friend arrived which made a big difference as one of us could be scooping up grass and one on the dumper. The loads were being dumped at the back of the garden for the grab lorry to access on Tuesday. The day was relatively mis-hap free apart from re-arranging the thing the clothes line used to be docked in:
The other surprise was along the boundary of the lawn and the tarmac was four absolutely huge concrete blocks buried in the soil, they looked like a single breeze block from above but turned out to be the size of a microwave, took some getting out but all possible. We then spent quite a lot of time fannying about trying to get it vaguely level, I am not really sure if this was worth the effort or not but we didn't do a bad job. Also removed a raised border which includes "the horrible water feature" that came with the house (pics to follow)
At the end of Saturday the lawn was gone and crucially my friend and I were not not that bad at driving the digger. We went and drank some wine to celabrate.
Tomorrow the tarmac destruction begins
Sunday was tarmac destruction day. Not before I had gone to watch a friend's son playing for the Northampton Saints academy, sadly for him the game that was supposed to be on the main pitch had been moved, something about needing the pitch in good condition for the semi final on Friday.....
The tarmac came up relatively easily, with the only frustration being it was highly variable in thickness so in some spots it really took some going at. Neither my friend or I had mastered picking up stuff with the bucket so it was easier to hand load the dumper before tipping a load out on the tarmac pile.
I am on my own again tomorrow when I will be digging up the hardcore which was under the tarmac ahead of it being 'grabbed' first think Tuesday
The tarmac came up relatively easily, with the only frustration being it was highly variable in thickness so in some spots it really took some going at. Neither my friend or I had mastered picking up stuff with the bucket so it was easier to hand load the dumper before tipping a load out on the tarmac pile.
I am on my own again tomorrow when I will be digging up the hardcore which was under the tarmac ahead of it being 'grabbed' first think Tuesday
Now waiting for a grab lorry so an update from yesterday.
I started to dig up the aggregate which had been under the tarmac, initially a top scraping layer to get rid of the mix of errant tarmac chunks and stone then going down to the clay sub base.
What I mainly learned was the ground is packed with a lot of bricks. I previously lived in a new build so am used to s
tty sub-soil but this is next level stuff. Going to need a lot of new dirt to fill the hole ( are there different types of soil, i.e. top soil and sub soil? )
I am now at a point where I need the first few grabs to be taken away so I have more space for spoil before getting the new stuff delivered. Can probably also start some detail work around putting in the drain pipe from the garage gutter to the drain in the middle of the future lawn, also going to have to replace this with a manhole cover rather than a grate
I started to dig up the aggregate which had been under the tarmac, initially a top scraping layer to get rid of the mix of errant tarmac chunks and stone then going down to the clay sub base.
What I mainly learned was the ground is packed with a lot of bricks. I previously lived in a new build so am used to s
tty sub-soil but this is next level stuff. Going to need a lot of new dirt to fill the hole ( are there different types of soil, i.e. top soil and sub soil? )I am now at a point where I need the first few grabs to be taken away so I have more space for spoil before getting the new stuff delivered. Can probably also start some detail work around putting in the drain pipe from the garage gutter to the drain in the middle of the future lawn, also going to have to replace this with a manhole cover rather than a grate
Edited by BigBen on Tuesday 28th May 09:51
Have not kept up with updates because I have been too exhausted from doing actual work instead of my desk based day job......
The grab lorry turned up Tuesday morning as expected, first thing we realised was the stuff was not quite within grabbing range so I had to do quite a lot of moving with the digger. A 16 ton lorry was filled with tarmac in about an hour. The driver was very patient and gave me some good digger driving tips. It helped that my step son was on hand to keep him full of coffee while we loaded.
The second grab was to be for the removed aggregate and the old scraggy lawn, in the time the driver was away dumping the tarmac I was able to move this into grab range so it was much quicker to load. Sadly taking away the old lawn was not possile as it was 'green waste' which is apparently hard to get rid of. That said I had possily been a bit enthusiastic in digging out the old soil / aggregate to following the driver's suggestion of just burying the old lawn wasn't so ridiculous.
The next job was to dig a trench to connect the guttering from the garage to the central drain in the garden, this drain had previously been a drain for the car park so will be a bit redundant in a lawn but don't want to move it and it seems to flow well. This was also exciting as it involved using the 'pecker' on the digger which made light work of the channel I had cut with my Stihl saw into the tarmac that remains pending Phase 3 and a patio.......We also did quite a lot of stone clearing to make the sub base a bit better than it could have been.
Removed around 1 ton of stones and bricks by hand and it is still what I would consider a pretty rocky base layer
The grab lorry turned up Tuesday morning as expected, first thing we realised was the stuff was not quite within grabbing range so I had to do quite a lot of moving with the digger. A 16 ton lorry was filled with tarmac in about an hour. The driver was very patient and gave me some good digger driving tips. It helped that my step son was on hand to keep him full of coffee while we loaded.
The second grab was to be for the removed aggregate and the old scraggy lawn, in the time the driver was away dumping the tarmac I was able to move this into grab range so it was much quicker to load. Sadly taking away the old lawn was not possile as it was 'green waste' which is apparently hard to get rid of. That said I had possily been a bit enthusiastic in digging out the old soil / aggregate to following the driver's suggestion of just burying the old lawn wasn't so ridiculous.
The next job was to dig a trench to connect the guttering from the garage to the central drain in the garden, this drain had previously been a drain for the car park so will be a bit redundant in a lawn but don't want to move it and it seems to flow well. This was also exciting as it involved using the 'pecker' on the digger which made light work of the channel I had cut with my Stihl saw into the tarmac that remains pending Phase 3 and a patio.......We also did quite a lot of stone clearing to make the sub base a bit better than it could have been.
Removed around 1 ton of stones and bricks by hand and it is still what I would consider a pretty rocky base layer
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