Tag: patio

Adding an oak terrace

We needed something to connect the big glass doors with the pond, so we built an oak terrace cum patio.

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The finished terrace and step

It was to be an irregular shape because of the pond, so we drew it exactly, levelled the ground and dug nine post holes, into which were inserted short lengths of 100×100 mm fence posts, bedded in concrete. Continue reading “Adding an oak terrace”

2012 repairs – pond, well, patio, drainage

New brick patio, with the well protected by a steel over with limestone slabs on top.
New brick patio, with the well and electric pump protected by a steel cover with limestone slabs on top.
  • The remaining pond mud, piled in the garden – perhaps 80 tons – was removed and used for landscaping adjustments, and grass was laid.
  • The well was properly capped with a steel cover, screwed down, on which limestone slabs were relaid.
  • A steel structure was built by the same people to make loft access safer.
  • A brick and stone patio was constructed outside the kitchen with a channel for the power supply and hose of an electric pump for topping up the pond. The flow rates were tested. At the worst of the 2011- 2012 drought, when the well was at the lowest level we have recorded, it produced more than 2 cubic metres of water a day which would be adequate to top up the pond in a summer drought. At other times its productivity was much higher.
  • The shallow trench round part of the house, which had been dug roughly to prevent damp earth lying against the brick footings above the inside floor level, was redone more carefully. A low brick retaining wall was built, the bottom of the trench the was lined with geotextile, and several inches of gravel placed on top. It stopped the damp coming through the lower bricks and discolouring the limewash on the inside of the brick footings.

Continue reading “2012 repairs – pond, well, patio, drainage”