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Not sure what to do with this muddy area in garden..
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[Deleted User] wrote: »So close, but yet, so far!
Another bag of stones required. And stones were the one thing I was sure i had far too much of!
Oh wow, I would have said you have way too much too.
If you have much left over I could take it off your hands!0 -
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Ah no, I'm delighted with the progress so far. I can't really complain. The biggest issue is getting rid of that muck, but a friend is actually taking a fair bit of it for his own garden, so once that's done i should have a better idea of where I stand, in general.
On adverts, I made an offer on two sets of doors, and picked up a set of doors some chap was giving away for free (so three sets of double doors, in total) but it looks like I'll never be able to get round to collect one of the sets, as I'm out and away from where he is for a while.
Two sets of the doors are pretty much the same (brown with 15 panels of glass). These will be for the sheds:
Set 1:
Set 2:
The third set of doors, i was hoping to collect on tuesday, but the chap wasn't around (he said he would be, but then didn't arrive home til late that evening, i believe) so i wasnt able to collect them. The idea in my head was to put a dividing wall and make a 'room' in the bigger shed. But I'm not sure now if I can do that (and the fact i couldnt get the doors when I wanted means i've taken a bit of a laid back approach to the idea).
As an aside, the first set of doors above cost me €60 and came with a frame. The others cost me nothing (but had no frame). It's amazing what you can get on adverts if you shop around.
I also found a shop on adverts selling Dulux weathershield paint at a discounted price. So I'd like to get some of that, too (waiting on them to get back to me).
Also seen a table and chairs on Adverts that look decent (again, from a shop seller). So Adverts is being good to me in general. After that I've just a few small bits to pick up to finish things off.
Just not a lot left to do until i get rid of the muck and get more stones. Power wash the 'wash me' wall, give the doors I have a few coats of a Ronseal wood preserver I picked up.. then hopefully start working on my raised flowerbed idea.
I was thinking of picking up two rabbits to keep aswell. Friend has one and they seem like a nice pet to have (and would hopefully give my dad something to do in the evenings when he gets home). I know they'd be taken well care of, but i'm just not sure if i'd be keeping them in an area not suitable for them. Wouldn't like them to have a poor quality of life.slinky2000 wrote: »Oh wow, I would have said you have way too much too.
If you have much left over I could take it off your hands!
Well the Stata group sell them in 450kg and 850kg bags. I bought another 850 as I reckon it'd be needed. As it stands, the area that is covered is largely only about one stone high (ie; it looks good in the photo, but in real life you can see the weed cover in the gaps) so I'd say the full 850kg bag will be used. If its not, though, you're more than welcome to take any i have left over away, though.0 -
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doctorchopper wrote: »I'd be a bit worried about security for the shed with those doors, be very easy to break the glass to get in
Ah, they won't be locked or anything. There's never really gonna be anything worth taking, so I'd leave them unlocked just so the little cnuts, if they ever did decide to break in, wouldn't break my doors.
There will be motion sensor lights going up, though (admittedly, more as an aid for myself wandering the garden after dark, but also helpful deterrent to the scummers around the place, too).0 -
Today the smaller, previously unpainted, shed got a coat of paint. It actually got two coats, but it started raining heavily and it took a bit of the paint away with it, particularly along the bottom of it. It wasn't myself that painted it, it was the younger brother. It needs a bit of touching up, and I've enough paint to do it, but it'll be left for a fully dry day.
I got the paint on the cheap, so it was two 5ltr tins, of two different colours. Mixed together to get 10ltrs of a single colour, but it's a very... erm... vibrant... colour. I'm not sure I'm too keen. The upside, though, is that at least there'll be 2 coats of weathershield paint on it, so if I decide to change colour, it shouldn't be overly difficult (and I may well change to a paler colour, but it's a work in progress, really).
I couldn't really do a whole lot else, today, as the rain never quite stopped, so I put a first coat of my Ronseal 'wood protector' on two of the doors. I'm gonna give each door 2-3 coats of it in the hopes it'll help them out, long term. I also focused on some of the smaller details, like cleaning the door handles...
A minor detail, but it was something to keep me occupied for a few minutes. The friend of mine who took a lot of my soil for his own garden, took an enormous amount of it with him. I gave him a hand (obviously - couldn't get rid of it fast enough!). So there's an enormous amount of that gone, but there's still a lot left. I'm just gonna do what I can to try and rake/flatten it out, but I don't think it'll be level with the footpath. I think that whole side of the garden may be a 'raised' section.
I was thinking of doing some decking there, and using that to cover the manhole cover. But it presents a few minor issues. For example, the doors of the shed open out only half onto the footpath, so if i were to put decking up to the footpath, it'd block the door of the shed.
Here's what I mean. The decking is the red outline, the orange is the problem area (I know the angles are way off here for anything realistic, but I'm no technical drawer, and these were fired together in about 10 seconds)
And here are the two alternative ideas in my head.
The first is to cull back the depth of the decking, so it doesnt reach the door itself, and have a small bit at the front that sticks out a tad (to act as a 'step'), and throw some gravel on the ground in front of it (this means that the doors would have two surfaces outside them, cement path and gravel/stones).
The other idea is to do the opposite, and bring the decking forward enough that it goes over the path altogether, and becomes the new 'entrance' to the shed.
The issue with that, is a practicality issue. The step up wouldn't be enormous (about 6 inches), but my dad would be bringing wheelie bins in and out through that shed to put them out the back for collection each week or fortnight. My fear is they'd damage the decking (big hard plastic wheels getting dragged up against and onto the decking).
So from a practical standpoint i think the smaller decking works, but for a better looking one, i think the bigger one is better. However, if i do the smaller decking to make it look anyway decent, I have to have it quite wide - wide enough that it obliterates any real space that would be available for a flowerbed. The larger decking would leave space for flowers (but cost more to do, and be less practical).
Not sure what the best move is, from here.
Relatedly though, does anyone know any good decking suppliers? I found a place in Cavan that do a 4.8m length for €10. Woodies charge the same for a 2.4m length, so effectively half the Woodies Price. My issue is I'd have to see do they offer a service where they'll cut the decking to size (I wouldnt need it cut to size, as such, as I have a small table saw there, but I couldn't get 4.8m into my car. Too long.
2.4m will fit in my car though (as I've already moved some Woodies decks around). If I have to get the stuff delivered or hire a van, any savings are out the window, though (so I may aswell just use woodies in that instance).
But if anyone know anyone priced similarly (or more reasonable, of course) in Louth, Meath or Dublin, I'd rather that than the 2 hour trek to Cavan, and then back again.0 -
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I will change the colour, though. I'm gonna use whats left of that paint to finish the shed and the washed off bits, then I'll go with a much paler colour, but at least this way it's actually got a coat of paint on it, so it's not just bare concrete anymore.
My second bag of stones arrived today:
After I laid it out and raked it flat, it looks like this:
Which is a drastic improvement. However, there are still areas that are very thinly covered (ie; some areas it's still quite easy to see the weed cover with a quick visual). It was dark by the time i was raking it, so I'll take a look tomorrow at it again. Unfortunately, this means no leftover stones (and potentially another, perhaps smaller, bag may be required in the future).
For the moment though, I'll just leave it and see how it's sitting after a week or two.
The friend doing his garden, took all the muck he needed, so now this is what I'm left with:
Which is still a lot, but I'm gonna try and level it out/flatten it down a bit and go from there.
I've a table and chairs, and a parasol and base waiting for some good weather. The table and chairs were gotten on Adverts, and the parasol and base were 2nd hand on Donedeal (but in good nick).
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I visited Chaptersone Paving today (a local business). They had pretty much exactly what I was looking for in paving slabs (smooth, and similar colours to my edging). My maths above was wrong as I did it quickly - to do the size i want to cover, i'll need 35 slabs. Thing is, the ones I like just happen to also be the cheapest (at 2.50 per slab - can't go wrong there!).
So it'll cost me €87.50 for my rectcangle. From an aesthetics position, i was considering leaving a square missing at the edges of the rectangle (so the corners would be gone). Think it'd look a tad more modern. I'll see how I get on.
These are the ones:
I also got my decking today. I thought the price was exceptionally good, but it turns out the lad mis-heard my order on the phone, so i didnt get as much as I needed/wanted. I wanted 36 decking boards, but he must have heard 26. Easy mistake, and the deckings not gonna be gown down til next week, so it's not really an issue at all.
Told the paving crowd I'd get the slabs off them on sunday as im busy tomorrow. undecided on what colour/s to use.0 -
Just a quick upate.. not a lot happening since I last posted. Still trying to get rid of the muck, but found another friend who wants some. I don't think he wants enough to help me much, but anything he takes will be better than nothing. He's taking it in the morning so...
In the meantime, I went up to Chapterstone Paving to collect my slabs. Salesman in there is pretty good, and I have to say, some of their stuff (the circles of stone, for example) is actually a lot more reasonable than I thought. I was very tempted to ditch my idea and get a circle of stone instead. The only reason I didn't was because I don't want to use up any area more than I have to, and the circles would need an extra slab on one side (so instead of being 7 slabs long, it'd be 8). Might seem like a small thing, but these are taking up a lot more space than I'd wanted them to in the first place).
My car looked like it was lowered when I was bringing them home! :P
That was 2-3 days ago. Earlier today, I made a start on the washing of the wall. Didn't get far before I got interrupted, but I'll finish it tomorrow.
Also found some nice trellis to put on top of the wall (€22 euro each, 2x6 foot)
... Seems reasonable enough to me? This was in a garden centre.. Beech Vista, near the airport. Didn't actually buy them, but will more than likely swing up and get them after I've got the other bits done (pressure washed wall, paving slabs down, etc.).
Have a delivery of more wood joists and decking boards, etc. arriving tomorrow. Will try to shift as much muck to my friends before that arrives. Once that arrives I kinda have to get the finger out and start doing something. Pray for some good weather. I'd say from Monday onwards I'll start getting to make some more real progress 0 -
Got a delivery of wood today from Brooks Group again. It was just missing one or two pieces, and a piece that needs substituting, but all relatively small stuff (a bit of gutter missing for the big shed, and a wrong colour on some floor beading). They said they'd get it out to me tomorrow.
I had the wide angle lens in the car with the camera so i fired off a few shots with the camera, to give ye guys a better idea of what it is I'm dealing with (the phone isn't too wide, so hard to get a lot in).
This is from the back door of the house, looking up the garden to the large shed:
Halfway up the garden, on the gravel:
Looking back towards the smaller shed and house:
and then the inside of the small shed, and it's dire ceiling that looks like it's about to collapse:
(of course, this was never actually finished...)
And of course, today's delivery:
Tomorrow I've nothing on all day... i bet it rains non-stop! :mad:0 -
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catastrophy wrote: »Just spotted this now. Fair play to you, its a huge improvement.
Arh.. .to be honest.. it's a... catastrophy...
A long way to go, but aside from Paint, I think I have the majority of what I need to do the bulk of the work Just need a few days to get stuck into it now. 0 -
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Fair play... You're sicking with it..
Enjoying reading this thread
Muck, stones, slabs, raised beds, decking, and rabbits - Gas!!
On your decking....
As youve said dont build the decking up in front of the doors - poses too many problems...
Id go for the other solution with a twist (caution: it may result in you having to distribute more muck)
Where you have that orange circle .... set the decking back as you said - but just fill it in with concrete - 6 inches down will prob be enough. Its not that difficult really. The area isnt too big so you could just mix it yourself.
If you ever need to take it out it will come out easily enough with a sledge or a small kango at most.
And instead of a square "notch" cut out of the deck for the door - sweep it around in a curve - its easy enough too. Find centre point of circle and mark the joists using a piece of string+pencil as a compass. Face it off with a length of treated 7 x 1 - its easier to bend than decking boards.0 -
Fair play... You're sicking with it..
Enjoying reading this thread
Muck, stones, slabs, raised beds, decking, and rabbits - Gas!!
I'm an optimist
On your decking....
As youve said dont build the decking up in front of the doors - poses too many problems...
My plan for that had actually changed, to doing decking the whole way along the front of the big shed? I thought i mentioned that in the thread..? (maybe not).Where you have that orange circle .... set the decking back as you said - but just fill it in with concrete - 6 inches down will prob be enough. Its not that difficult really. The area isnt too big so you could just mix it yourself.
If you ever need to take it out it will come out easily enough with a sledge or a small kango at most.
And instead of a square "notch" cut out of the deck for the door - sweep it around in a curve - its easy enough too. Find centre point of circle and mark the joists using a piece of string+pencil as a compass. Face it off with a length of treated 7 x 1 - its easier to bend than decking boards.
That's actually a really good idea, but I think I wouldnt be feasibly able to do it now, considering ive ordered so much.
I'm not sure if this has been posted or not, but this is the general 'end plan'.
A - Path.
B - Gravel/Paving (the 'B' on the picture is covered by the slabs :P ).
C - Small Shed.
D - Kennel-y shed.
E - Ramp/entrance to kennel shed.
F - Rabbits, possibly.
G - Decking
H - Raised flowerbeds (made of decking).
There'll obviously be more decoration work done (trellis, hanging flower pots, etc.).
I'm not sure if I want to try and do something with the path just at the back of the house (between the house and gravel).0 -
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Well I think I figured out an idea for my soil! :eek:
I blame all of ye for not telling me about this sooner!
I actually just re-read the entire thread and I realised I never posted a picture of the garden area at the side of the house. This is because no one ever uses it. The side of the house is in need of repair (needs pebble dashing), and my plan was to put up a gate and pretend this area didn't exist. However, now, I think I can get rid of my soil in an obvious manner that should have popped into my head about a month ago.
For the side, if the house:
If you go down to the back door of the house, and look right, this is what you see:
If you then walk forward and look left, you get this:
It's an area that's approximately.. say.. 25ft by 7ft, wall to wall (give or take). I was trying to think of ways to hide that horrible shardy, beaten wall/step/rock along the wall on the right. So my plan now, is to make a big, long.. long.. long flowerbed! I'll place the 'front' of the bed about 6-8" out from the step, and build it about a foot taller. Throw all my soil in (or as much of it as I can fit, anyway) and then use that as a base. I dunno why I never thought of it (and I don't know why I never mentioned that area on this thread?!).
Pity I ordered my wood already. I'll need a fair bit more to do anything decent here. Chi-ching 0 -
Deleted User wrote: »I keep reading this line over and over and trying to picture it in my head.. you've got me wanting a curve now.. ya prick.. :P
Surely a 7x1 would snap when you try to bend it to a circular radius?
Maybe i just wanted to show off my curve
I did mine last aug/sep and it was wet at the time so it bent around quite easily - but you can (and prob will have to) wet it with a hose. It creaked a tiny bit but i never felt it was going to break. Clamps help
Couple of pics - first one is during construction. The second one is actually just after the missus painted it yesterday (not sure about the colour of the fence etc yet).
I did a boarder on mine and for the roundy bit of the boarder i didnt bend anything - just cut curves into pieces of 7x1 - it was a pain working out the lengths and angles.... junior cert maths that i thought id forgotten. But you could just run the decking up to the edge (edit: over the edge - I'd leave a bit of a lip). and finish it off with a jigsaw or circ saw up against your compass.
I actually used a decking plank as my compass - you can see it there - cant rem what radius it was - i can measure if you want but guessing about 2m.
I built a table into the joists (in the finished pic its got 2 benches on top of it) - outdoor socket under the table and a few LED lights wired in around the boarder and on the front of my curve.0 -
Maybe i just wanted to show off my curve
You sexy thing, you.Couple of pics - first one is during construction.
I'll be honest; the first thing I thought when I clicked into that was "oh no!". It looks like it must have been a nightmare to work on?! Basic addition and substraction could have me puzzled for hours.The second one is actually just after the missus painted it yesterday (not sure about the colour of the fence etc yet).
I did a boarder on mine and for the roundy bit of the boarder i didnt bend anything - just cut curves into pieces of 7x1 - it was a pain working out the lengths and angles.... junior cert maths that i thought id forgotten. But you could just run the decking up to the edge (edit: over the edge - I'd leave a bit of a lip). and finish it off with a jigsaw or circ saw up against your compass.
I actually used a decking plank as my compass - you can see it there - cant rem what radius it was - i can measure if you want but guessing about 2m.
It sounds like it's not actually overly difficult, to be honest (sounds like it could well be frustrating though).
It looks great though, I will admit to that. I am definitely fond of your workmanship. Looks like you actually know what you're at!I built a table into the joists (in the finished pic its got 2 benches on top of it) - outdoor socket under the table and a few LED lights wired in around the boarder and on the front of my curve.
Does that mean the table is permanent? I was considering a 'decking table', too, but i don't think i'd have it in me to make it permanent (knowing me i'm gonna mess it up, anyway, so everything I'm doing im trying to do in as 'temporary' a manner as possible, so if i change my mind or anything doesnt work out, I can rip it up and start again.
i really do like your work though. I don't know if a curve would work for me or not though. I think i'd need a larger open area planned for my deck to be able to get away with it. There'd be no point in putting a weedy little 2ft curve jammed into the corner of mine (maybe in general it could work, but i dont think it'd work out too well on my deck. i think it's too squashed).
As an aside. I like your grass and stepping stones. Not something I'm usually a fan of, but your's looks like it came out quite nice.0 -
Today I managed to get stuck in a bit more. Had the day to myself so did what I could.
Started off by moving a lot of muck down the side of the house, for my raised flowerbed idea. I'll have to get cracking on that fairly lively, though, as the muck is laying against the house and I don't really want that. So I'm a tad unsure how to proceed with the raised flowerbed idea.
I'd like to use something other than decking lengths for it, but at the same time, I'd like to keep it low cost.. So I'm a bit unsure. I really like the look of Kilsaran's Connemara walling, and I think it costs around €160 per pallet, but I'm not sure if there'd be enough in one pallet to cover the area I'd need, and I don't want to start over-spending on things if I don't need to.
Are there any relatively inexpensive alternatives to using lengths of decking as a flowerbed wall? I know sleepers are a choice, but they're much more expensive, and I don't care too much for their appearance in general.
Anyway, on with the pictures, this is the way i left the muck area:
I'm not sure if it actually looks much or at all different to previous photos, but in person, it's a lot, lot better. It's almost ground level (not quite in some areas, but definitely getting there). My back was broke moving it around (filling large storage boxed and lifting them from A-B repeatedly). The sweat that came out of me doing that would fill a small swimming pool.
Then it was on to the main event (for today). I haven't so much as cut a length of wood in about 5 years, so needless to say picking up a cordless and jigsaw again was like... well.. it was like picking up a jigsaw and a cordless after having not used them for a while..
:P
This was my foundation...
You can see how badly the ends bowed once out on the very uneven ground. It was a disaster. Partly my own fault as I didn't order a joist thick enough (I thought i'd be grand and was aiming for a low profile base).
You can see the right hand side is on 'stilts' to try and help level things out.
Then I decided it was turning out crap, and abandoned it. I had the paving tiles in place, but they were rockin' all over the world.
So I had a ponder, and ended up using.. you guessed it.. muck/soil.. I laid it down (took it off it's stilts, cos they were ridiculous). And I beat it into the ground on one side to help level it a little. Then i poured muck and dirt into it, raked it out, and stood on it to compress it (rinse, repeat, til it was full).*
Then I sprayed weedkiller like a mad man, threw some weed killer cover over it, and laid down a bed of rubber anti fatigue mats (i love these mats. They do everything and have saved my ass so many times!).
After that, I laid down the paving slabs themselves, and, again, stomped, jumped and just generally beat them into place. One or two were a little rocky, but I reckon they might settle or set down over the weekend, so I'm just gonna leave them til monday (as I have a few bits on over the weekend, so i wont have the time to do much gardening work).
Unfortunately, by the time that was done, my phone's battery was near gone and it was dark, so my phone wouldn't let me use flash and the place wasn't bright enough for a picture (and my proper camera was at home in my own place).
So ye'll have to wait til tomorrow for that photo, but I'm sure you get the gist.
I also got a plumber to call around. Say hello, to my little friend!
€70 all in (supplied and fitted). Thought that was a pretty respectable price.
*it was actually my dad's idea, but I'll take the credit :P0 -
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You've done brilliantly
Well I'm enjoying it really. It's good, especially on a nice day, to be out doing something. Today was the first day I got a bit overly annoyed.
I went over to the garden, briefly, to take a quick look (hadn't got a lot of time). Went over and looked at the slabs, and wasn't impressed. They looked a bit too all over the place (ie; considering they're on a flat surface, they looked very rocky).
So I ended up going out and jumping on them and some of them just refused to flatten. So I ended up getting pissed off and pulling up everything and replacing the rubber mats with 2 plywood sheets, side by side (i figured that'd be an even more stable, flatter surface, as it's all just two pieces, instead of lots of mats).
I put them down and I threw two or three slabs on to see.. still one of them rocked. At this point I twigged it. I pulled them up again and when my dad was packing the muck in between the wooden frame, he somehow overlooked my obvious advice - 'Make sure there's no big stones or anything like that, protruding above the wooden frame!'.
Alas, there was a nice big stone wedged in that would never have fit below the frame comfortably. I presume there's lots of this issue under the slabs and that's why they're not sitting right. I know it'll only take 20 minutes to fix it, but I got very annoyed about! :mad:0 -
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