I’m trying to get my garden level. It is currently on two tiers and I need about 8 cubic metres of material to fill it before I lay a patio made up of flagstones.

Anyone have any experience of doing this as I’m a bit stuck as to what to put in the hole and how long to wait before it is settled etc.

Cheers

ramblers? 😆

Cats.

yes yes… the annoying neighbour can go in, too.

I actually do need some help with this. I can’t find quality land fill anywhere! Where do I get stuff to put in the ground?

When we had our levels altered they used something called “crusher run” IIRC (pebbles, chippings and other rubbish to my untrained eye). They probably compacted it down too.

We then dumped a load of top soil on it and turfed it. No signs of it sinking or moving.

Try a local builder, they may have some hardcore to get rid of, or let your fingers do the walking in the local yellow pages, look for top soil suppliers. You won’t want top soil as you are looking for a base to go under your patio, they will probably be able to supply you with some rough spoil to do the job.

MUTD’s

cheers! I’ll give that a go tomorrow morning.

clay soils will settle for years unless you compact them in thin layers as you place the fill. Well compacted clay soils will also act as an effective drainage barrier.

Granular soils will compact very quickly, even better if you can compact them a bit as they are laid. If it is clean granular material (i.e. similar sized stone/gravel) it should drain well (depending on what is under / around it) If the granular fill contains a significant proportion of fine material it may drain less well.

Are you going to alter any drainage paths by filling it in? I.e. does the garden drain from it’s lowest point. If you interrupt an existing drainage pathway you could end up with soggy areas/local ponding. It’s fairly common sense stuff, just look at the levels and try to visualise where water will run during heavy rain.

Hard core, you know the score etc etc. Get your topsoil from a proper place (they can mix compost in and get soil to match whats already in your garden to ensure even growth if thats your thing). As for the filler, find a local building site where they are digging holes and ask for some from them, they have to pay to ge rid of it and will happily dump their waste in your garden for free!

There’s a patio in Blackpool which has my dads first car under it. Back in the early sixties his first car finally died and he could’nt afford to get it towed away so he dug a big hole in the garden and rolled it in and just spread the left over soil over the whole garden.

Unfortunately due to recent legislation any developer needs to be able to prove that all materials carted off their site has gone to a licenced tip, so approaching the nearest building site will probably not work.

8m3 doesn’t sound a lot but its 20 metric tons, or a full load of a wagon, the sort of quantity you wouldn’t want to handle yourself.

By the quantities stated it sounds like you’re filling to some depth, whatever material used if placed incorrectly will cause differential settlement between the existing subsoil and the area of fill. Bad filling will lead to failure of the patio over time.

The one thing you don’t want to be using is topsoil, obviously this will continue to decompose over time and result in the patio sinking.

Why not get in a local hard landscaper to give you advice / a quote. I know a good one, where are you based? got a couple of quiet months at the mo!

Local skip hire/waste processers(sp) for hardcore,graded gravel,top soil?

Girlfriends?

I have just Googled ‘hard core hole fillers’ and I don’t think that is the right stuff!

Dig a hole & use the soil from it to fill the other hole

I have just Googled ‘hard core hole fillers’ and I don’t think that is the right stuff!

was going to suggest hiring a plate vibrator

harry too, 20 tons does sound a hell of a lot to move but I learn’t on a recent conference that that was how much the average navvy was shifting every day in the mid 1850’s. I don’t think you’d find too many labourers now who could shift that day in day out.