GARDEN PROJECT
The back garden of our 1930s semi in suburbia hadn’t changed much since it was first built... at least that’s what we felt. The lawn was raised up by a couple of feet and held back by a ha-ha wall. Between the wall and the house was a very uneven slab patio. The wall and path running up the garden to the left hand side was accessed by some stone and concrete steps. The previous owner had attempted to hold back the neighbour’s higher ground by building a half brick wall using common bricks and, by the look of it, no spirit level or any thought to the perpendiculars. As can be seen in the photo on the right the commons were blowing badly.
Initially I had thought that this garden wall would have to come down and be replaced with a proper retaining wall made from engineer bricks but “What to do with the rubble?” became a problem. I didn’t want to have to cart the lot through the house into a hired skip for landfill. Bad for the environment & the pocket.
I also had an idea of removing the lawn ha-ha wall and moving it back a few feet so as to give us a larger patio area. But, once again, “What to do with all the soil?”. It occurred to me that if I built a retaining wall some distance into the garden from the side retaining wall any soil from the rebuilding of the ha-ha could go behind it. This would mean A) The old wall/path could be left in place, B) There would be somewhere for the soil from the ha-ha to go. C) We would have a raised bed for flowers/herbs which would be easy to manage. D) It would be easier to cut the hedge as I would be able to walk on the back of the raised border.
It just so happened that an office built of concrete block at my works had been demolished and the blocks stored on pallets awaiting the time where they would be used for hardcore. I suggested to our works MD that it would be better for the environment if the blocks could be used for the purpose they were intended and not hardcore. He agreed so I spent time after work cleaning up the blocks with a bolster and hammer then bringing them home in the boot of my car. There was enough to back the walls I intended to make and some spare. It occurred to me that I could build a wall across the back of the lawn and make a kind of “sunken garden”.
I still had to purchase approximately 1000 second class engineer bricks to face the walls and some blues first class engineer bricks for the capping.
Then I had another IDEA! Why not build a verandah to give us some shelter? As the garden is facing SW we thought it not a good idea to have a conservatory because at the height of summer it would be untenable.
Removing and cleaning up the old bricks from the ha-ha wall was rather time consuming and hard work but, as you can see in the photo on the left (5th Oct. ‘09), work progressed and the salvaged bricks were stacked for use later.
It would have been cheaper to have a bulk bag of sand/gravel delivered but it would have had to sit on the drive or front lawn for three years. I bought bags of building sand, gravel and cement from Morris Mica who were kind enough to give me a discount. The sharp sand for the concrete I obtained free from work. (Waste sand from the sand filters.)
Top right shows the new retaining walls taking shape with the block and brick backing ready to take the brick face. The concrete path and old retaining wall are still in situ behind the wall on the left. At the bottom of each step in the concrete I’ve allowed for drainage.
Step by step on how I transformed our back garden into a place that is user friendly and enjoyable to spend time in. Work started in the middle of September 2008 and was finally finished in the middle of October 2011. Wherever possible I used recycled/reclaimed materials and NOTHING went to land fill. Updated: Monday, 2 January 2012
FROM THIS TO THIS
IN THREE LONG YEARS!
Things were getting complicated so I spend a little time thinking about exactly what I intended to do and make sure that nothing would go to landfill. We decided to turn the flower bed to the right of the lawn into a decking area with a pergola for a grape vine. Why not go the whole hog and have an ornamental pond too?
Decking and pergola.
Ornamental fountain on pebbles. (This was not followed in the end.)
Glass covered verandah. (7mm wired Edwardian glass.)
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Below are the blocks going in to back the top wall. In front of this you can see the footings for the steps which will allow access from the stepping stones on the left of the lawn to the top part of the garden and also access to the decking. The footings for the decking can be seen behind the wooden shuttering and the white pipe is a drain that extends from the top garden to the drains by the house. (Just in case of flooding during winter.)
On the left shows that the old retaining ha-ha wall has almost been removed and the excellent first class engineering bricks stacked against the old coal house. I have started to remove the topsoil and I have piled it on the lawn so that it can go on top of the subsoil at a later date. The subsoil will eventually go behind the retaining wall on the left hand side of the lawn giving us the raised flower bed. The drain from the top garden can be seen making its way down towards the house drains. This will lie under the decking. We can have a serious problem with flash flooding from off the adjoining golf course so this will help to alleviate the problem.
Below: The topsoil has been removed and I am now down to the hard clay subsoil. Some of this will eventually find itself under the decking.
The retaining wall to the left of the garden is coming on well. The return brick wall you can see is suspended on aluminium angle so I would not have to build down to the lower patio level thus saving material. The lower bed with the netting on has a curved wall which I tried to face with bricks end to end. This was not successful and in the end it was faced with half bricks which gave a neater finish. (The old wall can be seen below hedge.)
The photo below shows that progress often stopped because of bad weather. The curved wall took three attempts to build: Rained off twice and once work stopped because of a white out snow blizzard!
Below: Organised chaos! Trying to juggle everything and keep things stowed away was a continuous problem. At this point the old 1930s hand made slabs have been lifted. Drainage for the new patio is resting against the uplifted slabs. I opted for the zinc plated steel rather than the plastic as I’m not a great fan of plastic. The footings for the step up into the verandah can bee seen at the base of the yellow spirit level with the drain from the top garden making its way towards the drain on the corner of the coal house.
Below: Footings for the new retaining ha-ha wall are in and also the drainage for the back of the wall. This is supplied by the use of recycled cores from industrial cling wrap rolls. These also take water from the retaining wall on the left of the garden. The white drain from the top of the garden is now in place.
Top left: The steps upto the lawn are almost complete; with just the blue bricks to go on top of the last step. The curved return wall, in spite of the bad weather, is progressing nicely after the rather unsightly full brick attempt at facing the blocks. The half bricks look much better though much more time consuming to lay.
Top right: The block backing to the ha-ha wall is in place and the brick facing is coming on well. The short step up into the verandah can be seen. Behind this (cannot be seen) is the drainage from the top garden, drainage from behind the wall and verandah drain pipe. Into this will go the drain from the pond. The back of the wall was filled with broken bricks, old mortar from cleaning up the reclaimed bricks and broken slabs. This all helps to aid the drainage and keep the pressure on the back of the wall to a minimum.
Left: A friend of mine up the road from us had recently had an extension done. These were the left over bricks which he was glad to be rid of. (Never look a gift horse in the mouth!) The pale bricks are original and are the same as our house. These would come in handy when I would later need to raise the height of the coal house. The other, smaller, modern bricks would be just right for the posts of the verandah and the same size as the engineers I was using in the walls and steps. (All was wheelbarrowed by hand one morning by myself!) The curved wall is finished but in need of a clean up after trying to lay the bricks in increasingly difficult conditions.
Sometimes you just have to call quit!
Right: The blue caping bricks are on the top wall and steps. The decking/pergola are built. The back fence of larch lap has been replaced with feather boarding which I made in situ. (Supplied by Hilltop Supplies.) So not to compromise my neighbour’s privacy I made the decking as low as possible and the pergola out of fencing material to keep the cost down and not have it out of proportion or imposing.
Above again: The central ornamental pond is in place, the backing brick are the ones salvaged from the ha-ha wall. A mortar mix of one part building sand, three parts sharp sand and one of cement has been used to scree the base and make sure there are no sharp edges to puncture the liner. A man made underliner salvaged from work (horticultural capillary matting) is used for extra cushioning. A drainage pipe/overflow exits the pond at the far right and travels under the lawn to meet up with down pipe for the verandah roof. The electric cable for the pond pump uses the overflow as a conduit. Split garden hose cushions the brick edge.
Left: The pond liner is in, filled with water and allowed to settle. The ends are trimmed and tucked down between the bricks. More cushioning is placed in the bottom of the pond and a 2’ x 1’ slab is laid gently on this as a base for the ornamental fountain support. The piece of wood is there in case any wild animal should fall in then there is an escape route. The earthenware vase for the fountain can be seen on the deck.
Right:
The height of the fence is under 6’ from the decking and is only just high enough to afford our neighbours their privacy though their garden is lower than ours. The pergola is strengthened by the use of wire strainers ready to take a grape vine. Two attempts at growing the vines failed due to verticillium wilt so a vine was planted in a large pot just seen behind the verandah’s black drain pipe.
As I had decided to go for a roof framework of 6” x 2” planed joists, aluminium glazing bars and 7mm wired Georgian glass for the verandah, I deemed the weight heavy enough not to use steel pillars and just use plain brick. (Brick works best under compression.) I wanted the verandah to have an old fashioned feel.
The far wall against the neighbour’s conservatory is high enough to take the outside stud wall. Below: The lawn has been edged with Everedge and the borders have been screed with mortar to prevent weeds before adding red granite chippings. The stepping stones are blue engineering bricks to go with the wall. To divide top and bottom gardens a 6’ trellis has been erected and a decking wooden bridge from the top steps through the gap in the trellis.
The fountain is in and working and a water hawthorne is flowering.
Above: Going for the cheaper option, I have seeded the lawn with a grass that is tough/hard wearing, rather than rolled turf. Sharp sand was dug into the top soil to aid drainage of this often wet lawn. The mortar under the outside border slopes down to the verandah where it meets a drain behind the ha-ha wall.
Above: The grass has grown a bit and the place is beginning to look like a garden. Fountain is working well.
Below: The brick pillars have reached the required height ready to take the wooden framework.
Above: Before the framework could be fitted to the bay I removed the hand made Redditch tiles to reveal that all there was behind these tiles protecting our bedroom from sub zero winter temperatures was some tarred sacking and plasterboard. I took the opportunity of installing 3” thick thermal insulation in the way of Kingspan.
Above left: The framework is complete with steel hangers on the brick posts to support the wood and the back stud wall with it’s polythene membrane is up. This is backed by pressure treated feather edge boards upto the level of the gutter on the neighbours’ conservatory and that above the gutter is clad in pressure treated shiplap boards which, though we wouldn’t see them ourselves, would look better from our neighbours’ view point. All the wood not already treated was given a couple of coats of clear wood preservative.
Top right: The roof of the coal house has been removed and the wooden beams saved for later use. The laths were turned into kindling for our multi-fuel fire. These tiles, along with those that were around the bay were put on Freecycle and taken by a local roofer. The aluminium powder coated glazing bars from Howell’s were chosen for not being plastic, for being strong and of a lower profile to others not made of aluminium. You can see the edging of the glazing bar in this photo.
Left: The 7mm wired Edwardian glass was selected for strength and looks. Originally it came in two width: 610mm and 710mm, hence the width of the joists. Two years later The Glasshouse informed me that Pilkingtons had been bought out by the Japanese and the glass was now made in larger sheets. Here the glass has been delivered and is awaiting me to lift it up and fit it to the bars. (Frightening/fun!)
Top: Glass is in position and mortar chased out with a disc cutter to take the lead flashing.
Top right: The period bricks given to me by my friend who recently had an extension to his house are being put to good use here extending the coal house wall upto the joists.
Below: The pine tongue and grove cladding is on the stud wall and extra 3” insulation on the exterior wall is being fitted. The house does not have a cavity wall but solid single brick so I took the opportunity to add some insulation, however small.
Bottom right: Most cladding is on and the electric cables (NS Allen Electrical Contractors) are in place for the two double sockets (One seen here in a waterproof casing.) and the wires for one of the lights can be seen also. (Note: The tongue and grove cladding was very thin and bought from Homebase. It was rather delicate and easy broken. It would have been ok if fitted to a solid wall but in this instance I would recommend something thicker. I may redo this at a later date. The green pressure treated tongue and grove around the bay was much better quality from Hilltop Supplies. It was 10mm thick and I should have used this instead.)
Above: More insulation going in around the bay. This was only 2” thick so that after the addition of the tongue and grove cladding it would not protrude out from the window sill above it. The laths arrowed in this photo were placed at the width of the two windows above so that we would have the option of having French windows/patio doors at a later date. The joists for the floor boards of the verandah are down. The darker joists were salvaged from the coal house roof and the lighter wood is an off-cut from the verandah roof joists. All wood, including the cladding, was treated with clear wood preservative. The second double electric socket can be seen on the right.
Above left: The concrete and hard core under the remaining patio has been dug out and placed between the joists for the verandah floor. (More shifting around and “loosing stuff” to save sending to landfill.) The cladding on the far wall and the bay has had its knots painted with “knotting solution” to prevent the knots from weeping sap after being painted. The roof joists and floor boards were not knotted as this is not necessary for wood that is to be varnished. (Try saying that sentence fast!)
Top right: The roof joists have been varnished and the floor boards are down. A countersunk aluminium angle edge has been added to save the wood from being damaged by feet. The extended wall of the coal house has reached as high as it could go and the gap between this and the joists/glass has been filled in with tongue and grove and, again, knotted.
Top: Venting for the air bricks underneath. Lead is in place and bay tongue & groove painted.
Above left: Last bit of the patio going down . The slabs were difficult to lay as they were hand made from the 1930s. They were mostly 3’ x 2’ and 2’x 2’. The surfaces were uneven and the thickness varied from 2-3”. I laid them on a wet mix of three part sharp, one part building sand and one part cement. They could be gently settled into place by “wobbling” them. I left a 1/4” gap between each so this could be pointed up with mortar in the old fashioned way using a similar mix.
Above: The floor boards have been coated with hard wearing yacht varnish and the wall painted in mat mould resistant “Duck egg blue”. The edges of the cladding and floor has been beaded to finish it off.
All done! I even made some steps up to the decking from the verandah using wood that was left over from the roof joists. We took a long time to find the wall lights we liked but it was worth it.
