Claire O

I also have a 14 year old son so potentially we grab a few of his friends and move it over a weekend?

We have 3 very high rock walls surrounding our garden - on one side a halfway house, a workshop at the back and an expensive home on the other... I will definitely be speaking to the workshop guys but I dont imagine they want any down time whilst I use their workplace as a thoroughfare because I dont want to dirty my own... We still have the wall to deal with so not sure how much that might cost to knock down and rebuild... Still currently leaning towards finding (ie borrowing more) some extra cash to do this before the renovation...

Haha! I love this idea and will check it out with them, but I fear they probably arent overly interested in domestic jobs? And... there is no way that vehicle is getting anywhere near my backyard...

For us, we love the home and the price is right - that is why the house is good for us. We are just trying to work with the layout as you have to with any home... if money wasnt a problem I would sort this issue out first... So this thread is really about - CAN THIS SOIL PROBLEM BE PUT OFF UNTIL LATER OR MUST IT BE SOLVED BEFORE THE RENOVATION. After all the help from these amazing people, I am leaning towards the latter and that I am best to solve it first.... . PS I hope to get a shed in the back garden if we need a lawnmover etc.

Really helpful... I will use this language when i speak to the builder. Thanks!

This measurment is very helpful... I will measure all the doors next time I am there.

Im starting to lean towards this because a crane would need to reach over a neighbours garage at the very least so that sounds expensive.. And the doorways would be difficult for the digger and we certainly dont want that going through a new renovated house

Yes, this was the isssue the builder raised - corner into the kitchen, another corner into the hall, another corner into the entrance way, and another corner out into the garden...

If we were willing to raise the last tier, I suppose we could move some of it to the highest tier. I hadnt planned on raising any parts though as it is already quite high compared to the house.

Its already low next to the house, but quickly raises a couple of fit from the house, and on a gradual incline the entire grassed area... I wont be lowering anything below the current lowest point which is the same level as the house.

Interesting idea... I will mention this to the builder but with the back garden, to the kitchen, to the hall, to the front entrance to the front garden, then I might need 5 or so of these, so my question is - do they connect well to each other?

I tend to agree with your assessment of the builder... I cant afford the design and / or the soil removal right now, so I think I will just have to leave this as a problem for another day. I hope you are right about removing so much soil in an hour... Is there a mechanical shovel kind of thing that is smaller than a digger to make this faster / easily OR is it - if you cant get a digger in, you are down to a man & a spade?

. 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!