Claire O

. In a few years, I was hoping for something like this.... its a lot of clearing of soil to create any patio to fit a table....

The only way is through the house... which right now, because it is a wreck, wouldnt be a problem but still a good distance to the front... Maybe you are right, have a think about work with the yard without moving the soil... We could potentially make steps going up to a patio, rather than putting the patio at the bottom near the house. If we could ever afford to replace the conservatory though, we would definitely make it wider so a bit of soil would have to go then.

I have no way of estimating how many tons, but I will ask the builder. Therefore struggling to figure out how much this would cost. The good news is we would bring the soil through the kitchen to hall to entrance, so no carpets.

A builder suggested it would cost 30k GBP to remove that much soil without a digger. I almost fell over.

Hey, thanks everyone for your thoughts.. I cant figure out how to respond to each of you individually... FYI - there is no side access... never will be, as our house is semi detached and our house goes right up to the wall on the other side. There is no access through any of the neighbouring properties either... .

Hey all, looking for some advice on garden soil removal. We’re buying an old Georgian house, and because of budget constraints, we can’t do everything at once. We're prioritising the inside first—rewiring, plumbing, new kitchen and bathrooms. The garden has no side or back access (only through the house), and there’s an old conservatory out the back. We’ve decided to keep it for now as a teen hangout—just clean it up a bit with some paint, lino flooring, and remove the old cupboards. Long-term plan is to knock down the conservatory, take out the retaining wall, and dig back the raised garden to build a bigger conservatory and create a patio area below the lawn. That would mean shifting a lot of soil. One builder suggested that even if we can’t afford the garden project yet, we should think about removing the soil now—before we renovate—because getting a digger through the house later won’t be possible, and doing it all by hand would be a nightmare and super expensive. Problem is, we don’t have the money for that right now, and removing the soil now would leave the garden pretty messy with nothing to finish it off (no retaining walls, no landscaping, no proper drainage). So I’m wondering: Has anyone had to remove a lot of soil through a house without a digger? How bad was it? What did it cost? Any clever workarounds? Thanks in advance—any tips much appreciated!