Need help with landscaping
My contractor didn't follow the plans and | am not sure how to finish my yard. The fireplace is currently 46 in above the ground. This is an infill (37.5 ft wide lot) with a suite over the garage. The garage/fireplace is about 22 feet from the house deck. The grading still needs to be done but it won't be high enough to sit and enjoy the fire.
Comments (20)
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Comments (8)Hi Sally I would agree with Sonia here - your main challenge is to deal with the soil compaction. This will have occurred due to all the traffic over the soil and the storing of materials on it. This causes all the air spaces in the soil to get squashed away. Normally soil is around 25% air spaces. This has two very detrimental effects: 1. It stops water being able to drain away so you get flooding and if you have clay you often get a hard crust on the surface which can be very hard 2. With no air in the soil, all the beneficial bugs and bacteria etc will die making the soil itself dead and not able to support plants. Similarly plant roots need air too, so this also prevents them growing. The other thing to look out for is that digging trenches etc pulls up 'subsoil' to the surface. Subsoil cannot support plant growth either. Looking at the piles of earth in your photos I believe you can see the subsoil on the top - it is usually lighter in colour - often yellowy if clay. You need to make sure that if this subsoil is put back that it goes at the bottom of the holes and that the top 300mm of soil is proper topsoil. Any remaining subsoil should be got rid of. So, as Sonia says a rotivator can be helpful to to break up the soil. Because of the rotivators blade action it can often compress the soil at the bottom, so watch out for that. It is also an ideal time to improve the soil and feed it. I would suggest: If you need to top up the soil then use Multi-purpose topsoil - make sure it is BS standards compliant and buy from a good source. It is pretty cheap in 1 ton bags. You don't need to use expensive potting composts. To feed the soil dig in some form of organic manure. Options include well rotted horse or farmyard manure. I would suggest that you lay a 7cm depth of it over the soil surface and then dig it in with the rotivator. You need a lot to improve clay soil and this may feel like a huge amount; however you will be amazed at how quickly it seems to just disappear when you dig it in. It will feed the soil, help lighten it and improve the drainage. On clay it is also a good idea to dig in horticultural grit (not gravel/pea shingle) as this helps break up the clay and improve drainage. Again I would recommend 25kg per meter sq and dig it in with the manure. If you are planting a flower bed, spread a 3cm depth of the organic manure over the top when you have planted the beds. This is all hard work, but is much easier to do from a blank sheet and should give you a good soil that your plants will love, and is easy for you to work in the future....See MoreHi Houzzers! Need to have our garden landscaped. Looking to level the
Comments (1)Meant to add - need ideas of cost many thanks...See More
Karen Robinson
5 years agoThank you for taking the time to respond to my post. The stairs in the first picture are coming off the deck from the house. The fireplace is wood burning with a gas log lighter. It was supposed to be closer to the ground so that I could put a patio in and enjoy the fire while sitting. Now it is so high up I don't know if I should extend the house deck or forget about it and plant grass. although it then becomes a very expensive non functional part of the backyard.
This fireplace is not sharing the chimney with an interior fireplace. It is attached to the garage. Also just another note they stucco'd the house the wrong colour not to mention the 500 other things that went wrong. I am now just trying to work with what I have and appreciate all ideas or suggestions.
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5 years agopartim
5 years agoMy deck doesn't have any stone steps or planters around it. Steps are wood and there are no enclosed planters at all, just taller shrubs (Annabelle hydrangea) planted in the ground next to the deck on the right.
This is the best picture I have of the whole deck. It's pretty low. The back yard windows face the hot west sun, and the house is is an L shape with a 2 doorways onto the deck.The deck is an irregular shape that connects those doorways. One wide step goes along the side that faces the pathway and lawn. There are small steps on the far right side by the house. At big parties, the long step is popular for extra seating. The eating area is under a small 8'X8' gazebo set up on the right side, and our "living room" seating isn't in this picture but is usually on the left area where you see a small table. Grill is on the far left. The pathways are irregular natural stone slabs set into mulch. Very inexpensive, although over the years the mulch has disintegrated and we do get some weeds in between.
Not sure if this will help you, but this is my plan where one square = 1 foot.
Karen Robinson thanked partim
PROYardvaark
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoKaren, you are not showing a complete enough scene. Swing the camera left, then right, ADDING ON TO the pictures above. Need to see the grade at the buildings & along their sides
Karen Robinson thanked YardvaarkKaren Robinson
5 years agoHi. Thanks so much for taking the time out to respond. I'm attaching a few more pics. I hope I have captured what you are looking for. It was a little sunny out after work today. Finally!
There is a concrete pad in the deck for future hot tub
Would like to build a shed to store the outdoor furniture in the winter and hide the pipes
- PRO
Yardvaark
5 years agolast modified: 5 years agoIt is hard to explain much in a drawing without a lot of drawing -- too much drawing. And keep in mind that this idea is an EXPLORATION ... not a statement that you CAN ABSOLUTELY DO such and such ... an idea that was alluded to earlier in the conversation.
The idea is that you can probably raise the grade about 6" or so, to near the bottom step tread (coming off of the deck). If you carried that elevation across the courtyard (that's what I'm calling the space between the two buildings) it would bring you to just a few inches below the fireplace, and you could build the patio at this raised level. Additionally, you could add a raised hearth at the base of the fireplace that would make the firebox itself not seem raised so high.
In other words ... if you were to build a paver patio ON TOP OF the existing grade, without any excavating whatsoever, adding the base material, setting bed and pavers, it would raise you up about 7" higher (at least it would in my area), bringing you to near the level of the bottom tread. Then, after that patio was built, you added topsoil to blend the yard elevation up to it -- kind of like a "ramp" at either side -- then you'd have more or less what I'm talking about. There would be details that you need to work out in order to to this, but it looks like it would be doable according to the buildings exterior.
I hope that helps. I don't hold much hope for the illustration being able to well explain it.
Under any circumstances, I would not build a deck or patio that blocked access through the "courtyard" by any wheeled cart, vehicle, lawn mower, etc.
Karen Robinson thanked Yardvaark Karen Robinson
5 years agopartim
5 years agoMy home has 2 steps to go from the front to the back yards.
We often need to navigate these steps with a loaded wheelbarrow. Since we previously had a wheelchair-user living in the house, we have these folding aluminum ramps which cost under $100. We use just one for the wheelbarrow. Or you could just use a length of wood. We don't have much lawn so we just have a lightweight electric lawn mower, which we lift up and down the stairs and don't bother with the ramp.
Just to say that if you wanted a deck for cost or other reasons, having steps up the sides is not a deal breaker. access-wise I think that in your yard you could also go around the garage and up the other side?
Karen Robinson thanked partim
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