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

[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.

[seismic22]

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

[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