The driveway before the work

The front steps and location for retaining wall

The retaining wall before the work

In this example the customer had a large area of land in excess of 100sqm at the front of the house, to be used as a driveway. Unfortunately the land was very rough and made it very difficult to use as a driveway with anything less than a 4×4 car.

The job involved,

• preparing the ground to create the correct contours to give proper drainage
• building a retaining wall to contain a lot of the backfill, to make the driveway less steep
• creating the edges by using ‘found rocks’ and concrete
• creating proper steps for an entrance to the house
• creating proper steps to access the side of the house
• using nearly 10 tons of sand to create the base for putting the paving stones on
• using a Terram semi permeable weed proof membrane to give drainage through the stones, but preventing weed growth.
• using further sand to give the final contour
• wacking the whole lot down using a ‘wacker plate’
• laying the paving blocks
• wacking down the blocks
• brushing in ‘02′ sand to finish the job
• cutting the odd blocks around the edge and concreting them in

This was my major job of the summer of 2009 and both I and the customer are absolutely delighted with the job.  The driveway is the envy of most passers by and the result is a usable easy to  use area.  The driveway is very easy to clear of snow and gives superb access to the house and road.

The driveway was only suitable for a 4x4 vehicle

The access to the road was poor

Work begins! Defining the edges

This section of garden is to remain here

This shows the driveway before work

The drain at the top was not working

The ground is prepared

This is area is cleared of 'rubbish'

Work begins on the retaining wall

This rough area was prepared

Taking shape now

The front steps taking shape

The retaining wall now ready

The paving blocks arrive!

The membrane was placed as the blocks went down

Down go the paving blocks

The contour is perfect for drainage

Edge blocks are cut and concreted in

Finished Block Paving Driveway

The original garden path!

In this example the garden path runs down the side of the house down a steep garden to the lower part of the garden.

Originally there was no path at all just rough stones delicately balancing against each other. To make things worse the irrigation canal that runs down the side of the land made one area so narrow that it would have been impossible to build a proper path there.

The solution was to define the path of the canal by concreting in rocks and stones in at the side and then at the narrow point, sending the canal underground through a large plastic drainpipe.

A really nice side effect of this was that where the drainpipe re – emerged it was possible to make a little waterfall, which the kids love to fill their watering cans up at. Perfect.

The finished steps with waterfall

Now a very neat garden path

Steps down to the lower garden

The finished path is now much wider where the canal runs underground

The rotten wooden floor under the shower tray

The customer had a chalet in Briancon with just a shower. The shower was a very homemade affair and the shower tray leaked.

With a new baby on the way and a 5 year old daughter living at the chalet, the customer decided to swap the shower for a bath.

The bathroom was very small, so the customer had a particular bath in mind, a short asymmetric design that he bought from Castorama.

Removal of the old shower cubicle involved the removal of a plasterboard wall and the shower tray.

The removal of the shower tray revealed a very rotten floor, so this section of floor needed to be replaced.

Looking much tidier now

Wooden supports for the new floor

The new floor with extra tiles added

The finished job