Sunken garden area

ChroniC

ChroniC

ChroniC

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Joined
18 Oct 2002
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Will have my eye on doing the garden in the coming spring as the interior of my new home is nearing completion.
With a mess of garden it is a blank canvass, so I will be ripping it all out. I have plans for a excavated areas (fig1) to contain a fire pit.
This could all be a pipe dream as I don't know the legailty or the cost of doing such.

I plan to hire a mini digger anyway to pull up all the large bushes in one foul swoop so thought why the hell not.
My plan is to excavate a square about 4foot deep, next to the right hand side of the decking (i plan to install) and then lining the whole thing with breee blocks and cover with attractive garden slabs. Then create a breeze block firepit in the centre with a pebble floor.
The only down side I can see to my extravegant plan is the removal of tons of soil and possible water table issues.

Has anyone done similar to attempted so. Any thoughts
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Cant help Im afraid buy my concern would be that it just fills up like a swimming pool when it rains! Ive seen it done in show gardens and looks great but just cant see how you would practically make it work in Britain?
 
Mark M said:
Cant help Im afraid buy my concern would be that it just fills up like a swimming pool when it rains! Ive seen it done in show gardens and looks great but just cant see how you would practically make it work in Britain?
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dig further down and have a large soakaway, or connect to drainage (although probably no pipes that low.
 
Its not hard to find the water table, you dig down and leave it, if it slowly fills your below the table

Plan sounds ok in general, but I wouldnt be using breeze blocks for a fire pit, they are by nature an imperfect product, they could easily have something in them that would heat expand at a different rate.
You want something that has been fired or is natural. Cheap bricks are a far better bet than breeze, as they have been fired in production and your unlikely to manage to match that temperature
 
NoNameNoNumber said:
That's kinda what a soakaway is... The water soaks away from it, assuming it's above the water table.
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Glaucus said:
dig further down and have a large soakaway, or connect to drainage (although probably no pipes that low.
Click to expand...

I guess anything is possible, just depends on how much work you want to put it to do it properly. Out of interest how would you find out the level of the water table?

Edit - answered my question while typing!
 
Anyone know the name of this type of excavation / build as I want to Google and learn. Hard to pin down the specifics without a correct definition.

This is what I want. Can find lots of pictures but not much info.
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I really fancy doing something like this in my garden too, i've just been put off thus far by the amount of work it'll require. We're lucky as where i want to put it is already built up so the water table shouldn't be an issue just need a decent soak away to cope with the Welsh weather :(.

I'd like to get an old cast iron fireplace set in as a feature to make it a bit more interesting than a lot of the modern fire pits you see.
 
You would also want to consider the potential load being placed on the wall lining your sunken area. I'm not an engineer but I imagine the surrounding soil would exert a fair bit of pressure on it.

Would you also need to leave drainage holes in the retaining wall to provide an outlet from the garden in heavy rain?
 
I had wondered about that given it would be about a metre from the neighbours garage. I was concerned about soil slippage. The wall would essentially have to be a retaining wall, although I would only be going about 1 1/2 metres deep. I will consult a brickie or builder about the logistics.
 
If you will be that close to the neighbour's garage wall you will also need to consider any party wall implications if you intend to dig below the level of the bottom of their foundations.
 
I would, it would be a metre away from one of the corners. So not level with it, however I am aware that removing that earth would affect the around surrounding it be several metres, Thankfully my neighbour on the other side is a brickey so I will consult his knowledge on foundations and walls.
 
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