This was a job we undertook for a friend of Toms. He had already received a quote, but wanted a second opinion. There was no way we could get near their initial quote (and could only presume they had seriously underestimated the job ahead) and infact estimated double this, however the client chose us, which was a nice feeling.
The garden was a new build garden and was on a fairly steep slope. It had yellow concrete pavers outside the patio doors and leading up to the garage. Initially the client wanted a small patio at the bottom to match the existing pavers, but we managed to talk him into spending a little more and go for real stone, which is far superior in every way. The stone we would use would be Indian stone from the Fossil Mint quarrey.
As ever the job started with an excavation task.
We decided that the area was not big enough and access wasnt easy enough to warrant hiring a mini digger so we excavated ten tonnes of topsoil with spades and barrows!!
New build gardens are known for being a dumping ground for rubble, but we were extremely lucky and happy to find nothing but topsoil, which we decided to save for more up-cycling.
For a bit of interest the client wanted the patio to curve down at one end and join the side path. This gave us something to think about as we had a sloping curve to retain.
We had serious drainage issues to work with on this job. We could not lay the patio towards the retainer wall as we had decided to build this from timber sleepers so we decided to lay towards the house and install drainage channels.
Unfortunately the drainage pipe had been put behind the waste pipe so a little diversion was built.
The next job was to erect the retainer wall. The client had requested vertical sleepers rather than laying them horizontally. We also had to think about fitting in with the slopes and curves of the garden.
Luckily Tom is a keen carpenter and works regularly with timber.
The slopes were cut with a chainsaw then neatened up with some planing and finished with a good sanding.
When you cut treated timber is is almost always never treated fully through so if it is in contact with moisture the cut ends need to be preserved.
The client wanted sleeper steps with gravel tread. Timber can become very slippy after time so the gravel ensures a non-slip surface.
When putting a patio at the bottom of a slope it is imperative that you install drainage. It needs to be put at the back of the retainer wall and surrounded by a good layer of gravel and ideally lead to existing drains.
In this case the drainage channel also came in useful for hiding the lighting wires.
The weather can ruin certain landscaping jobs such as pointing, not to mention set us back days.
On this job we decided to combat this and beat the rain!!
Unfortunately the company we bought the sleepers from sent us sleepers made from two different types of timber. We only noticed this once it rained and by that time it was way too late to change them. We decided instead to paint them using a lovely dark oak from the Ronseal Woodland Range.
As you can see the client had a mid-job idea of wanting lighting. He bought the lights and we installed them. It was a simple job of drilling through the sleepers and fixing the cable back to the house.
The Finished Patio
