Sloping front garden - new driveway ideas please?

[seismic22]

Hi all,

My first foray into homes, garden and DIY section....

I'm looking to buy the property in the photos below, it needs some work and importantly (this is PH) needs a much bigger driveway. Driveway budget is small. I'd be willing to do all the work (incl excavator driving) but would need to arrange soil disposal (need to estimate this).

I'm looking for peoples thoughts on the best solutions so if your willing to make a suggestion then go for it, i'd be very grateful. Need parking for two cars, permeable hard standing and a pedestrian route up to the house. Drop kerb already in place and given the permeable intention I dont think Plannning Permission is required but stand to be corrected, seems a bit of a grey area.

Garage needs to stay and wouldn't mind an access door at the rear or side if possible.

All suggestions welcome, cheers.

Edited by seismic22 on Wednesday 26th April 16:08

[cossy400]

Assuming the boundary is where the hedge is?

Surely its just a case of walls down dig as far back as possible or as much as needed then re instate walls but not red!!!!

[Jaguar steve]

Get it as level as you can. A sloping drive is a right PITA.

[Gingerbread Man]

Yeah, I'd also suggest eating into the garden, building a retaining wall and then steps up to the remaining garden/ front door. It would otherwise be quite a slope and if too much, a waste of space as a pain to park on.

[pmanson]

A neighbour of ours had a quote recently to do something similar to his back garden.

The gardens are circa 10m sq and rise approx 2m from the house up to the top of the garden.

He was quoted £30k to remove all the soil and build suitable retaining walls.

[seismic22]

cossy400 said:

Assuming the boundary is where the hedge is?

Surely its just a case of walls down dig as far back as possible or as much as needed then re instate walls but not red!!!!

Hopefully that is just the case. I was thinking of forming hardstanding from gravel with plastic reinforcement etc.

I guess my primary concern is the amount of soil ill be excavating, I know a grab lorry is circa £200 - £250 a load (13 - 18 tonnes) but I need to try and estimate how much soil there is going to be.....further googling required I guess

[seismic22]

Thanks all so far.

Agreed - sloping drive is a no go.

£30k is concerning! I expect a large part of that is labour and ill assume access might have been an issue given its a rear garden however it still points to my figures possibly being a bit off.

[Zetec-S]

Appreciate it's probably not practical, but if you wanted to keep costs down is there anywhere else you could use the excavated earth? Perhaps levelling off part of the back garden, or creating some sort of rockery? (just throwing idea's out there).

[seismic22]

Unfortunately the rear garden is rather steep as well but I will have a think! Thanks

[hornetrider]

Have you got an image of the left hand boundary as you look at the house?

[jason61c]

A 20 tonne grab is about £350, what sort of cubic M are you removing?

[pmanson]

Ok,

So if you based it on 10m wide x 5m depth and 2m height you're at 100 cubic m of soil.

Quick google returns the following - Topsoil (some moisture) 1.44 tonnes per cubic metre.

100 x 1.44 = 144 tonnes of soil to move.

If it's 18 tonnes per lorry you're looking at 8 lorry loads so £2,800 (+VAT?) to get rid of the soil.


You'll have better access as it's not a rear garden so probably i'd say a week to dig it out? 2 guys @ £300 p/day (£200 for main guy / £100 for mate) = £1,500.

That's just to get rid of the soil, you'll also need structural calculations to work out what type of retaining wall you'll need.

So £4,300 to get rid the soil.
£1,000 for structural calculations / planning permission etc
£5,000 to get the walls built and steps up etc
£3,000 for hardcore/basic treatment on the drive (say gravel).
£500 for a couple of extra skips
£500 to get some power/lights down there

£14,300.

Call it £15k to be safe?

[theguvernor15]

pmanson said:

Ok,

So if you based it on 10m wide x 5m depth and 2m height you're at 100 cubic m of soil.

Quick google returns the following - Topsoil (some moisture) 1.44 tonnes per cubic metre.

100 x 1.44 = 144 tonnes of soil to move.

If it's 18 tonnes per lorry you're looking at 8 lorry loads so £2,800 (+VAT?) to get rid of the soil.

I would say for the disposal this is about right, my friend was telling me the other day it cost him around about £1200-£1500 to get rid of 80T of soil, he dug it all out by hand/wheelbarrows himself over the course of a few months, but it in dumpy bags & the grabber came & took it away, whilst building the retaining wall & doing up his house, he said it was back-breaking work, but as he had the know-how to do it he got on with it.

[bazza white]

What's the drop off from the front of the house to the road side of the current drive. The house looks set back enough but it's hard to tell.

[Andehh]

Rather then retaining walls - which are incredibly expensive to plan, dig and install look at Gabions & using brute force to retain walls. They can easily be 1/4 of the cost of a fully designed in Retaining wall, and you can do them yourself.

[seismic22]

theguvernor15 said:

pmanson said:

Ok,

So if you based it on 10m wide x 5m depth and 2m height you're at 100 cubic m of soil.

Quick google returns the following - Topsoil (some moisture) 1.44 tonnes per cubic metre.

100 x 1.44 = 144 tonnes of soil to move.

If it's 18 tonnes per lorry you're looking at 8 lorry loads so £2,800 (+VAT?) to get rid of the soil.

I would say for the disposal this is about right, my friend was telling me the other day it cost him around about £1200-£1500 to get rid of 80T of soil, he dug it all out by hand/wheelbarrows himself over the course of a few months, but it in dumpy bags & the grabber came & took it away, whilst building the retaining wall & doing up his house, he said it was back-breaking work, but as he had the know-how to do it he got on with it.

Thanks both, your posts are very useful and worryingly confirm my calculations.......

Going to need some very big planters to get rid of all that soil!

[seismic22]

jason61c said:

A 20 tonne grab is about £350, what sort of cubic M are you removing?

Suspect 85-95 ton going off the calculations above.

[seismic22]

bazza white said:

What's the drop off from the front of the house to the road side of the current drive. The house looks set back enough but it's hard to tell.

Roughly 12 - 13m distance from kerb to front elevation. Unsure of the drop off.

[seismic22]

Andehh said:

Rather then retaining walls - which are incredibly expensive to plan, dig and install look at Gabions & using brute force to retain walls. They can easily be 1/4 of the cost of a fully designed in Retaining wall, and you can do them yourself.

Good idea. Thanks

[Chrisgr31]

How much land is there at the top and to the side of the house? Could you create a slope from the pavement and have the flat bit at the top and possibly to the side of the house? Doing this would just mean moving the soil around within the front garden, rather than having to get rid of it?

Personally I wouldn't want steps up to the house. Pain in the ass for pushchairs, wheelie bins, moving stuff in wheelbarrows etc