Levelling my Garden (?)

[DunkerT]

Hello there everyone,

As I have just bought my first place I imagine I will be posting quite a few (possibly basic) questions on here, so please bear with me!

My new place is a 2 bed garden flat in Bristol city centre (pretty much centre anyway) that has been pretty shoddily completed (rental quality workmanship) so I do have a few jobs to do.

The first question I have is regarding my garden. It is an L shaped garden and currently has a very uneven, patchy concrete floor with a couple of areas of soil (well, if you can call it soil, it’s currently half soil half rubble and broken glass). I would like to get the garden looking good and the first task is to put down a nice floor. I was thinking about red brick floor or possibly slates/tiles but the floor needs to be level to do this. I’m wondering how can I get a level surface to start?

1. Can I just pour more concrete on top to level it all off? I’m not sure how thick the concrete is at the moment but there is some black plastic sheet sticking out of the concrete by the new extended wall so I think the damp proof course is below the level of the concrete (?) as it is so I wouldn’t like to get much higher outside.

2. Should I hire a ground breaker and take up the concrete that is there already? Am I likely to damage the foundations or something doing this?

3. Can I put down gravel or sand to level the garden to put tiles on top? I have heard this option will leave me with weeds growing through my floor for years to come (?).

4. Final option, should I give up on the levelling of the back garden and just have a gravelled garden?

Thanks in advance for your help. I look forward to hearing any ideas.

Tom

[dave.m]

Welcome, Tom to UHM.

A picture (or a few) paints a thousand words.

Post a few pics and the Garden experts will have a field day (excuse the pun) helping you out.

Posting Pictures

dave

[royaloakcarpentry]

Picture tells the story. You have damp courses that you need to stay below by a minimum amount.

You can put a layer of sand down, then a membrane and sand ontop of that to get levels. Slabs can be laid ontop of this. as it will only be foot traffic on the surface then you don't need to go as far in prep as you would for a driveway.

[DunkerT]

Hello,

Thanks for the advice, I'll try and take some pics this evening but it's usually dark when I get home, I'll turn the flash on full beam! There is only foot traffic as you say so, hopefully, that will make life a bit easier. I'll try and draw up what I want to acheive as well to see if anyone has any more pointers.

Thanks again.

Tom

[DunkerT]

Hello,

I've managed to put some pics on another post that help explain my garden a bit better:

my-garden-plan-any-suggestions-t28454.html

I've also attached some pics here of the damp proof course that appears to be buried under the concrete......is this right?!?!?

Cheers,

[kellys_eye]

Looks like weed matting to me.....