How to swap grass for gravel down the side of our house?

[Tiggsy]

Our rear garden is 100% patio (and the best thing we ever did - now gets used all the time and is literally another room of the house) anywayyyyyy....the only grass I own is down the side of the house and I want it gone!

Is it as simple as take off the top 2 inches, lay weed fabric, gravel - done?

Should I do more of a "driveway" type job and stick a sub base down to keep it looking good for years to come?

How much extra work would be needed to have that front bit of sufficinet hardiness that I could park on it (on the odd occasion we have lots of friends over and I need the space?

Any gravel tips?

Others nearby have done a similar thing and they all look grim with weeds, weed liner on show, etc, etc

[Tiggsy]

So what is under that gravel you are now parking on in the picture it looks like it spread on the dirt? But I assume you put some hard-core down first?

[Tiggsy]

AWRacing said:

How old is your house?
Are there any restrictions on what you can/cant do in your deeds?

If you dont fancy hiring a minidigger take a look at hiring a turf cutter to help with digging up grass. In theory you should get an uniform cut depth that way - they arent great for stoney soil though

House is 2 years old so restrictions aplenty! But all the neighbours have done similar and the management firm dont seem to care.

[Tiggsy]

OK - taken off the top soil, now going to rake it level before laying a weed fabric. Now, should I get a wacker plate and really flatten out the raken ground before I put the fabric down? Can you wack dry top soil?

In one spot I'm going to dig deeper and put hardcore down as a car will be parked on it (occasionally) but the rest is soil/fabric/gravel.