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Hi Everyone, I'm in the process of landscaping the front garden and would really appreciate your advice. As you can see, there's a considerable slope from the pavement down towards the house. I'm assuming that the DPC runs beneath the row of red bricks. I plan to level the ground between the back of the hedge and the house (second photo) and cover with decorative gravel. (1) Should there be three rows of exposed bricks between the layer of decorative gravel and the DPC, four, or more? (2) Would you recommend that I lay a type of French drain directly against the brickwork, or would that be overkill? Thank you - I really appreciate your expert eyes on this. Anna

Hi and thanks in advance for any help people can offer. I am currently excavating behind my house to build a Gravel Patio and have discovered a drain pipe that runs diagonally across the back of my house and into the neighbors garden. I have no idea where the inlet is as it is not running in the direction of the neighbors house which is adjacent to mine and there is no other building in the direction of travel for about a mile. The pipe then connects to the down pipe at the back of my house that the gutter runs into. That said my main concern is how to protect it rather than where it come from. The Patio will have 100mm of MOT 10mm of sand and then 50mm of gravel in gravel girds. I was going to hire a Wacker Plate to compress the MOT. I am assuming I cannot just lob some MOT down over the top of this. I was planning to dig a trench either side lay some bricks either side and then place something over the top a bit like a lintel and then fill the trench with either sand or gravel. My questions.. Does this sound a reasonable idea? Should i use bricks or concrete blocks? I have a nice collection of bricks I have dug up left over by the builders. What should I use as a base for the bricks/blocks? Concrete or compacted MOT What should i fill the gap between the blocks and pipe with? Sand or Gravel? What could i use to place on top of the bricks/blocks to protect the pipe? The neighbour suggested cutting paving slabs. Do I need to mortar it all together or will gravity do the work? Thanks again for any advice people may be able to offer.

Hello, Thank you in advance for all who will take time to support! I am planning to install patio grid in my garden to give some firmness to my heavy clay soil. Now I understood I need to dig around 130mm (as it will be light traffic and only foot traffic) and put around 60mm hard subbase 30mm of Sharp sand and the 40mm of the grid filled with probably 10/20mm chipping. However as I am on clay soil and need permeability (yes raining a lot in Wales and I have a conservatory adjacent to where I am going to do the patio), I am not sure what to use as hard subbase. I read MOT 1 is the most common but my understanding is that it will not be good for the permeability so can I use 20mm Limestone instead? or 20mm gravel? It is for an area of 10sqm approximately. Thank you!

Hello everyone! New to the platform and have recently purchased a property in London with a very run down garden. I am looking at laying a combination of a small gravel and patio area, in total no more than 20sqm (it will be sort of U shape, with grass in the middle of the U). My garden as it stand is an unlevel mud area, with no real vegetation except some weed, and an existing piece of concrete patio that a shed sits on. My question is surrounding digging for the sub-base before laying the gravel and cement/slabs. I wondered if this was actually required or whether I could build on top of the mud etc and then raise the turf level to meet it. Is there any specific reason why digging down is better than building up? Thanks in advance, all advice welcome as I am new to this stuff!

We need to create a new driveway (across our own land) but the distance is daunting in cost terms - Google measures it at approx 141m in total. Now, it only needs to be nice-looking gravel for approx 40m of that, which leaves 100m which could be, frankly: "anything that will support the weight of vehicles". Are there any super-duper technological innovations that have been made to make driveways like this less, well, pricey? The paddocks said access route would pass through are a bog in winter...I guess the hardcore and drainage just are what they are but 140m? That's a LOT of gravel, and a LOT of edging. It really doesn't need to be that smart... until the final 40m. Any insight or advice much appreciated.

Hi. We have just moved in so are now rectifying all the random things that were done to the house by the previous owner. One of these was to cover the construction trench around the extension of the house with wood topped with astro turf. Presumeably it was done to make it look neater for when the house was up for sale. The wood is all rotten and it touches the house above the damp course. I am half way through ripping it out. What are my options with this trench as it is pretty unsightly and there is the possibility of falling in it! One of my thoughts was to put loose bricks in the botton, then a layer of gravel then a layer of something decorative (i.e. pebbles). This would mean the stones would be touching the wall above the damp proof course. Would this be a problem? thanks.

We are part way through our low energy new build (passivhaus with a small 'p'), and are starting to look to the external landscaping (very exciting!). I'm keen on the look of hoggin for our driveway and garden paths, I think it looks good and it's in keeping as we're in the Cotswolds - BUT my excellent builder hates the stuff. Says he's had to pull it up and replace it with gravel at a previous job as it was such a nightmare for them, mainly messy I think. I don't want gravel as we have a fall of about 1.5m on our driveway and I think we'll spend forever raking the bloody stuff back up, even with that grid stuff below it which is supposed to keep it in place. Plus, gravel's crap for bikes and I have three bike-mad small kids who will want to speed their way round the entire garden, driveway included! Does anyone have any experience with hoggin? Is it really that bad? Should I try and persuade my builder? Should I consider alternatives? NB don't other telling me about that stone resin stuff, I HATE it and won't consider it! ?

I've tried for a year not to post this image. I just couldn't take the pressure any more. Goggle and weep. This where I get my hardcore - and a lot more. A lot more The keys are in the ignition, there's a copy of the Daily Mirror on the dash. Please don't tell anyone.