This Forum will close on Wednesday 27 March, 2024. Please refer to the announcement on the Discussions page for further detail.
Old patio/gravel vs new lawn
Diddyb
Posts: 4
Now the weather is starting to pick up I'm working on lifting the paving in our back garden so the kids can have a bit of grass to play/relax on.
The problem is under the flags and gravel is a layer of coarse limestone which is sitting on top of (and slightly mixed with) clay.
My original plan was to dig down to the clay, let it dry for a few weeks and try to break it down by mixing with soil/mulch/etc to then give me a better base for topsoil and turf. The problem is now I've started to dig I've realised just how big of a job clearing it is (I can't get a mini digger in or it would be sorted in a couple of days) so I need to come up with an alternative plan.
The garden already has a drain running from the middle from when it had a caravan on years back, my thinking is I can remove the flags, gravel and as much loose limestone as I can manage leaving a bit and the clay as is then topsoiling over?
To manage the drainage I would fit either a patio drain channel or bury a perforated land drain pipe at the end running into the underground drain so water could run down to the bottom of the lawn.
Does this sound doable or do I need to look into somehow getting a digger in?
The problem is under the flags and gravel is a layer of coarse limestone which is sitting on top of (and slightly mixed with) clay.
My original plan was to dig down to the clay, let it dry for a few weeks and try to break it down by mixing with soil/mulch/etc to then give me a better base for topsoil and turf. The problem is now I've started to dig I've realised just how big of a job clearing it is (I can't get a mini digger in or it would be sorted in a couple of days) so I need to come up with an alternative plan.
The garden already has a drain running from the middle from when it had a caravan on years back, my thinking is I can remove the flags, gravel and as much loose limestone as I can manage leaving a bit and the clay as is then topsoiling over?
To manage the drainage I would fit either a patio drain channel or bury a perforated land drain pipe at the end running into the underground drain so water could run down to the bottom of the lawn.
Does this sound doable or do I need to look into somehow getting a digger in?
0