I think I prefer terrace pronounced the French way as tear-ass (rip not cry) it sounds more suited to what we are doing although I will probably call it the “Sundowner deck”. A place to sit in the evenings and enjoy a sundowner G&T whilst basking in the last of the days golden rays of light.
Our land extends 5 meters across the back of the neighbouring derelict and our own hose is 10 meters wide. When we first came up with the idea of a Sundowner deck, the idea was to create it in with symmetry so that the depth was half the width. ie 10X5 meters, and then have central to that a curved extension that was the same width as the main window (4 meters and half as deep again as the main terrace. This would go up in three steps and become part of the garden with a path meandering down to the end of the garden where there will be a small private seating area that will always be in homage to our time spent there in the evening’s whilst shed dwelling.
First was to dig down and grade the land to slope away from the house in order to take the run off water away and into a soak-away and then on to the field behind. I took off all the spoil and down to depth close to where it needed to be and although I am a reasonable, and fast improving digger driver, I bought in my mate Kev to lend a hand, who is a superb driver and has a very good knowledge of ground works.
The camber away from the house is 1 inch in 1 meter, which is the same drop as for sewage and maybe a bit deep so I am checking out if I can get away with slightly less (maybe half) of a drop I am aiming for between 15 and 20mm per meter as it is just rain water into a permeable pipe and onto a soak-away and onto a field. I don’t want the slope to be too much as it will feel like standing on the deck of a listing ship.
We set up my Laser level with a datum point. ie I know how far down from the back step I want the slabs to be and I know how thick the slabs will be (give or take 10mm and also how thick the scalpings layer would be, and I am not putting a concrete slab down as the ground is hard stony shale and bedrock. So will lay on a dry sand a cement mix the same as you see stone slabs being laid in most places.
With a simple bit of maths, a 2 meter long piece of batten and big black marker, it was easy to mark off the level I needed. I then added an inch for every meter. So I ended up with stick as shown in the drawings. My surveyors pole.
Once we were near enough by eye with the digger I then walked with the stick in a grid pattern and planted it every half a meter or so in order for us to find the high and low points and snick them off with the digger.
Here are the photos of the dig down, one with the dog insisting that she should oversee the whole operation and no doubt get close to the heaters in the cab as it was 0 degrees outside. We chose to do it in that temperature because the land was hard and didn’t turn to mud.
After the dig down it was a case of getting the scalpings down as shown.
There are 4 tipper truck loads (the type of tipper you can hire form “Superu”) at 35 Euros a load from the local quarry. The first three I tipped direct and the last one we wheel barrowed through from the front.
What I did was tip in portions and then loose rake them into position. As soon as it was getting dusk and the definition line of the laser was easier to see, we re-raked to get the right levels and camber once again using our stick but recalibrated to account for the scalpings thickness.
Although difficult to see this is where the curved extra bit will go. The railway sleepers are where the drain will run underneath the stepped curve and are there so I could reverse in with the truck. If you look closely on the left hand side you can see the orange paint lmarks of where the s curve goes although it is more obvious in the drawing.
They will become the steps up from the main level of the terrace to the level of the garden.
So there we are so far. The next mission is to double check the camber and then whacker plate it all down. Once done we the have to locate and purchase the right slabs to harmonise with the colours in the back wall. According to Mrs B they should not be too yellow or too pinky or too square or too crazy pavingish or too uniform or too whacky but must be just the right combination of colour, variable size and shape, texture and affordable.
We were in a builders merchants just before I came back to sea this time and saw some that fitted the bill however the best price offered was 65 euros a square meter and we need about 70 square meters (I could carpet it with Axminster for less than that)
Now it was time for MrsB to flex her wall building skills again and here is the first part of her wall at the bottom of the terrace.
There are various bits of metal in it that we found in the house when we dug our the old lean to which is where the cider press was.
She is now waiting for me to get into gear and put in the levels for the railway sleeper steps that will take you up from the terrace into the garden.
I haven't been able to do it yet as I have to make sure I get all the levels right for the drains that will be under the steps and the covered gully drains that will be in front and that will take the water from the drainpipes.
They will all run to a soak away and then an overflow down to the field.
None of it will be seen apart from the tops of the gully drains.
MrsB said the best bit about building the wall was that I was on the ship and unable to comment or offer advice or stand there looking and going Hmmmmm.
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