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Nov 14, 2022 23:36:09 GMT
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Hi All, i havent posted much over the years, but have thoroughly enjoyed reading about others motoring and non motoring projects, so i thought i would share some details of my own project. hopefully some of you might be interested, and also hopefully serve as some sort of record for me! So, many years ago, i upgraded to my current house, which had my first garage, and also a rather long (and steep) front garden. It had potential, but it took me a fair few years, to work out how best to use it, we had this,  Not sure if this really shows the slope, but its about 5m higher at the house (where the photo is taken from) from the road. My aim was three fold, create a bigger and better garage, create a useable patio type area near the house, and enable the driveway to stretch much closer to the house. ( one of the main annoyances, was carrying everything up to the house) Took me a long time to come up with an idea, which was basically the below, the rhs was to be stepped with a high level terrace, and a low level garage, whilst the left would be sloped up the house  So, i drafted some ideas, spoke to an architect and put in for planning! |
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Last Edit: Nov 14, 2022 23:44:12 GMT by michael74
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I thought planning could be an issue, being in front of the house etc, but thought i’d start big, and reduce the size when they refused permission. Amazingly it went straight through, 40ft x 18 feet, about as big as i thought i could fit in. My plan was to build it in the gap next to the existing garage, then move everything over and knock the old one down, or let it fall down, its not far off! took me a while to make a start, i found it quite daunting, and was doing jobs around the edge like taking the old walls out etc, So, its 2020, everything's cancelled, gotta stay at home, and it turns out a weeks cancelled holiday during covid gave me final push to actually start. Knew i needed to create the levels before thinking about the garage, also had gas and drainage pipes to work around, so i hired a 2.5t digger for the week, and started making a mess Before long it looked a lot different ,   And a few of these, to get rid of the muck ( always turns out to be much more than you think!)  In a week i managed to get to a point where i laid the base of the retaining wall. I’d decided after much deliberation, to build a gabion wall, which is steel wire cages filled with stone, granite or similar, you tend to see them on the motorways. This gave me a few benefits, firstly i’d knocked down 6 x 6m wall sections, and had loads of bricks ( they can be used in the gabion behind the facing stone: and also, i could chip away at the gabions in any spare time myself, rather than a concrete wall, which i would have had to bring someone in. Also i quite like the look of them, the alternative of a 3.5m high flat concrete wall didn’t sound nice. So, i chiped away at the wall, after getting 20ton of granite delivered, which went from this  to this, over the course of about three months, its slow going.  which i have to say i was quite pleased with, i had however used up all the bricks and blocks that i had, the amount of material these gabions suck up is far more than i thought, although it is an oddly satisfying process, getting all the rocks to fit together. so this takes me up to about oct 20, i shall follow up soon thanks for looking, mike. ] |
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Last Edit: Nov 15, 2022 0:39:37 GMT by michael74
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Nice project. I'm following. Thanks for sharing
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mrbig
West Midlands
Semi-professional Procrastinator
Posts: 505
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Nov 15, 2022 16:10:41 GMT
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Lots of potential there, following with interest!
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1969 German Look Beetle - in progress
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Nov 15, 2022 22:43:50 GMT
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Thanks for your interest guys, main reason we bought the house was the space at the front, so its nice to finally make something of it So, having got the first row down, the second row and third row were a bit easier, as the gabions get narrower towards the top, lowest is 2m front to back, then 1.5m etc i was only able to do half the left half of the wall, as i had a gas pipe down the right hand side, which i was waiting for cadent gas to move. anyway ended up at this point,  not that impressive but i was pleased, next i had to get a digger in, to dig out the side return of the wall, It turned out to be the wettest november weekend in years, kept getting the thing stuck, churned the whole place into a quagmire and gave up, Then spent three hours cleaning the damn thing. After this thoroughly unpleasent weekend i decided i needed to be able to work when the weather allowed, rather than when i’d booked a digger, so i started looking at mini diggers, theres some very cheap offerings from china, which i was tempted by, but in the end i saw sense and bought an older takeuchi, fair bit of money, but seeing as i would have had to hire one 5 or 6 times i managed to convince myself it would be cost effective!  Now ive got it, its been used for everything, such a handy little thing, ive pulled landrovers around with it, and gardening is much more fun with a mini digger.. Anyway, next job was to to dig a trench for the new gas pipe. Got the boy trained up!  And after the gas pipe got moved i made a start on the other side of the wall, cue more looking in skips and on freecycle for old bricks and blocks to fill the gabions, my 3.5ton trailer got filled many times over the next few months, and eventually i had the below, with the two sides done as well.  It was at this stage i Started thinking about the garage, but there was still loads of landscaping to do at the top, and more digging to do for the garage base, Think i must have moved over 100ton of granite and bricks by this stage, and there was many times when i truly regretted starting, but there was no going back, i was too far in! |
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That is a magnificent if big one man job.
Those walls are great if you have space, time and inclination to gather all the rubble (I think using that for the rear and core is brilliant) and then effectively skin the cacges in the more costly granite.
Buying your own tools makes a ton of sense too.
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wow big job, look forward to progress. Cheers for sharing.
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'95 VW Corrado VR6 | '91 VW Golf 16v | '96 Golf GTI 16v
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Nov 16, 2022 18:46:31 GMT
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Thanks for the interest guys,
I have read some of your threads Grizz, and i like the way you work!
buying your own tools definitely to makes life a lot easier, i’m fairly confident the diggers still worth 90% of what i paid, so i should be well up compared to,hiring.
The only problem is its so useful i cant really see myself selling it!
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Thanks for the interest guys, I have read some of your threads Grizz, and i like the way you work! buying your own tools definitely to makes life a lot easier, i’m fairly confident the diggers still worth 90% of what i paid, so i should be well up compared to,hiring. The only problem is its so useful i cant really see myself selling it!That made me laugh. I own a few tools, bought a year or three ago, that have yet to work, but the new “Frankentractor” may see them brought into use. Keep it as long as it makes you money. My Galaxy made about £7k in the year I hadit. |
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Brilliant work so far,
Your solution to the problem many come across is very interesting,
Looking forward to seeing future updates as you progress to the garage and final landscaping,
Bookmarked,
Nigel
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BMW E39 525i Sport
BMW E46 320d Sport Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 325 Touring (now sold on.)
BMW E30 320 Cabriolet (Project car - currently for sale.)
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Nov 19, 2022 21:24:30 GMT
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Thank you Alpina99, its not finished yet, but i have a few more udates before we’re up to date. So the wall was good, but everything else was a mess, i decided to sort the top area first, just to get one area finished at least. First problem was backfilling, i had a lot of soil etc, which needed to go up behind the wall, to create a level area, but no easy way to move 30 odd tonnes of soil etc. It was physically impossible to push a wheelbarrow up the slope, even half full, so i needed a mechanised solution, i considered various hire options for a dumper, but you guessed it, i decided to buy one! i bought a muck truck, like the one below, worked well in the dry, but a bit of rain and it struggled to get up the hill, that said the soil is very claggy round here, so not a suprise. A tracked one would have done better, but significantly more expensive. This worked well overall.  A mate of mine volunteered his time and we spent 2 days with the power barrow and the digger backfilling the wall, and compacting it down. Managed to reduce the muck pile significantly and had the below. .  Over the course of spring And early summer, i put up a fence with sturdy steel posts ( the 3.5m drop could do some serious damage!) and started to prep a patio area and put some topsoil down, and sow some grass   So now the front of the house was at least looking betterit was time to start getting the base of the garage ready, i had whilst doing the top bit, been looking for someone to lay the slab. It had been designed as a raft slab, which i thought was easiest, but in retrospect may have been more expensive. |
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That's a hell of a project by why didn't you put the garage underneath the whole patio area?
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Nov 21, 2022 10:54:05 GMT
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That's a hell of a project by why didn't you put the garage underneath the whole patio area? Hi, Yes I thought that but the risk of compromising the foundations of the house could be a concern. I mean how close can you go? A structural engineer would know but to consult them would be costly. Colin |
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Last Edit: Nov 21, 2022 10:54:59 GMT by colnerov
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Nov 21, 2022 17:37:40 GMT
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That's a hell of a project by why didn't you put the garage underneath the whole patio area? Hi, Yes I thought that but the risk of compromising the foundations of the house could be a concern. I mean how close can you go? A structural engineer would know but to consult them would be costly. Colin Could have gone right under them if you want for more space and do a basement! Cost me a couple of hundred for a full set of calcs and steel specs for our new roof & second floor. |
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Nov 21, 2022 18:50:16 GMT
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I did consider that option, it would have been quite cool to have a hidden garage, perhaps with a trap door and steps down from the patio!
Simple truth is that talking to my engineer who has done the calcs for the wall and the garage, is that going too close to the house would have got seriously expensive.
The muck away bill itself would have been astronomical, and it would have removed any possibility of doing it myself.
The wall itself has been ‘relatively’ cheap, with the muck away costing as much as the stone and cages. A concrete one would have been a load more.
Also, we’re not really short of space, i’ll have parking for 10 or so cars as it is, if we had more space, i’d only fill it with cars!
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Nov 21, 2022 19:54:45 GMT
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Just a quick aside on what will be going in the new garage.. no1. 1971 landrover forward control. Needs a bit of work, and probably a new engine, very rare, not many people know what they are!  No 2 a 1967 series 2a, started a while ago, and now buried in the old garage, has had a new chassis, but needs wiring and bolting back together, photo is a bit rubbish, but i don't have anything more recent in one piece. And yes, it probably won’t end up purple.  And the last of the oldies, a 1954 series 1 this one actually runs!  Pictured here with its younger stable mate, which will probably have to live outside. I will probably raise threads for these as work progresses, but for obvious reasons above, it will be a while. Right, back to the garage. |
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filmidget
East Midlands
Mostly Lurking
Posts: 1,652
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Nov 22, 2022 13:18:30 GMT
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As a Bridge Engineer (including retaining walls, etc) myself and a colleague have just been admiring the placing of the stone in those gabions - honestly probably the neatest we've seen.
Impressive job altogether.
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'79 MG Midget 1500 - Still patiently awaiting attention
'02 Vauxhall Astra 1.8 Elegance(!) - Better than you might think
'03 Mazda MX5 - All new and shiny looking (thanks to Antony at Rust Republic)
'09 Renault Clio - Needs to go.
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Nov 22, 2022 14:51:15 GMT
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I am so sorry for you. There's no hope for you with that collection of vehicles. Once infected that's it I'm afraid.
Nevertheless, a nice collection. Don't even think of flogging them.
Now back to work on that small project. You have it finished by the end of the year. :-)
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Nov 22, 2022 19:51:50 GMT
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As a Bridge Engineer (including retaining walls, etc) myself and a colleague have just been admiring the placing of the stone in those gabions - honestly probably the neatest we've seen. Impressive job altogether. Thank you very much sir, it did develop into a bit of an obsession! my kids now think i’m odd when i pass comment and criticism on gabions on the motorway and such, i guess most just drop the stone in with a digger bucket until its full. |
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Nov 22, 2022 19:54:37 GMT
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I am so sorry for you. There's no hope for you with that collection of vehicles. Once infected that's it I'm afraid. Nevertheless, a nice collection. Don't even think of flogging them. Now back to work on that small project. You have it finished by the end of the year. :-) Yes its a terminal case. I’ve never been very good at selling cars, so imagine they’ll be with me for a while! as for finishing by the end of the year, yes hopefully 2023 though. |
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