Advice and cost please

readytosnap

We are thinking about resurfacing our garden ( it is too big for us to manage and will only get harder as we are getting older. So we are thinking of getting it done in something other than grass (concrete, tarmac, anything) Would anyone have the slightest idea what sort of money it would cost for either and would anyone have any advice as to what would be the cheapest option for us (other than concrete / tarmac), it would definitely have to be a job where weeds did not start growing up through it, tbh we are not too bothered about what it looks like so long as it is consistent. At the moment the front garden measures (roughly) 69 foot x 36 foot (approx 21 metres by 11 metres) if my sums are right. The garden was about 69x48 but we moved the fence toward the house (to shorten the garden) and create space to park the cars facing the house (as opposed to parallel). I am assuming we would not need any kind of planning permission to do that (cover garden)
Any advice is appreciated.

Gumbo

How old is the house?
Some new age properties stipulate permeable paving and this needs to be considered for the surface water run off.

The only real way to gauge pricing is to select what build up and finish you want and get a few quotes from reputable companies and try use people with personal recommendations. Many fly by night paving companies out there with no aftercare or come back!

readytosnap

kceire wrote: »

How old is the house?

I'd guess about 70 - 80 years old.

Calahonda52

If this the front garden I think you run the risk of seriously devaluing the house if you make a dogs dinner out of this project.

At 231 sq m if say it will cost 100 euro a sq m this is 23k so is this within budget?

Is the front garden shade/ north facing?

readytosnap

23k holy moly I nearly had a heart attack when I read that :eek::eek::eek:
the front garden is south facing. On reflection we think just one side of the garden will be done, as we look out the house the left side (garden path divides) is about 40% of the grass area and it is reasonably level (though at a slight gradient if that makes sense) the other larger size is lumpy bumpy uneven probably has more than a foot rise from the house to the gate it is very difficult to cut. that really is what is the big issue for us going forward. if the garden was level (I understand it has to slope away from the house) it would be a lot easier to maintain. we can cut the grass on the smaller leveller side in about 10- 15 minutes, the other (problem) side takes us an hour it is just too much hard work for us and is only gonna get harder. but at those prices we could not afford to get it concreted over. would anyone have a suggestion to an alternative option to alleviate the issue? tbh we would not be concerned about decreasing or increasing the value of the property, we are never going to sell it, and the sprogs have their own houses. Thanks for the replies.

Calahonda52

The 100 was just to give you some feel for what it might cost, front garden has advantage of getting a good size digger in.

Perhaps look for ideas over in the Gardens section: I would consider low height shrubs for the rough side, might cost 200 euro per annum for someone to come in a prune them back after 4 or 5 years if that is beyond you.
You could also take a metre or two along the wall perimeter on the grass side with more shrubs, and maybe some small Alpine beds around the front door, south facing might be too warm.
This is what we did when we bought 25 years ago and it was 15 black bags of grass a pop.

This is now beyond my pay grade so signing off