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Design Dilemma Gardens

Bringing the garden to the house

last year

Hoping for some design inspiration here! We will be knocking down our conservatory and building a long extension all the way to the far fence (on the left as you look at the house), with a new side opening onto the patio (to the right as you look at the house). The problem this creates is that the existing pathway between the house and the retaining wall will now become a 'path to nowhere'.

We looked at bringing the retaining wall up to the house but that would mean huge expense to reinforce the new extension wall and damp proof.

The pathway is about 900mm wide, so too small to create a nook or bbq area. Other thoughts are we could maybe do a raised deck with some planting.

Any inspiration as to how we can 'fill the gap' and make use of this area would be really appreciated!

Thank you in advance!

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Comments (3)

Sonia
last year
If you are doing all that work, why not push the retaining wall back and give yourself a nice wide terrace? It will involve removing a lot of soil but during the refurb is a good time to do it. You could then get a new wall built along with a new patio. So many people spend loads on the house and then realise they should have included the garden in the refurb. I know it does depend on your budget of course.
pjdklm
last year
We faced a similar issue with a large concrete drainage channel around the back of our house, which separated the house from a sloped garden behind a retaining wall. We wanted to exit straight onto a level garden but were warned about damp if we filled in the channel. Our solution was to use porcelain pavers on tall pedestals, which meant we could retain the channel as is underneath the level patio surface. Best of all we can easily lift up the tiles to access the channel if needed.
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Simon Osborne
Original Author
last year
Thanks guys. We have a decent sized patio area (on the right as you look at the house, not shown in photo) already so we won't be pushing the retaining wall out further. Pavers on pedestals is a great idea.. we'd need to find some that can go up about 1m though :).

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