Renovation case study 6

Having enough turning room in front of the garage had always been a problem at Noel's home. One solution was to excavate into an upper level of the property to create a turning space.

Noel engaged a landscape architect to draw up some sketches. As Noel has a background in engineering, he felt confident to play around with the sketches until he eventually got a solution to suit.

Once he was ready to go ahead, the first step was to employ a

The original driveway

contractor to do the excavation work. Noel's section is on two levels with a door to the house on the upper level. The contractor dug into the upper level, taking out tree stumps as he went along and dumping the excavated soil onto the upper level. It meant temporarily losing the path to the door. However, all this happened over the early summer and dirt being tracked into the house was not really a problem as the soil was quite gravely.

The second step was to install a retaining wall along the newly excavated upper level. Noel installed concrete blocks to about a metre high, to achieve stability to the earth works. The blocks have a bevelled, three-way face and are held together by an integral rear lip

Halfway through

that's moulded into every block. The rear lip automatically guides each new course into place giving proper alignment and a precise setback without needing to use mortar or pins. Noel wanted to make a feature of the wall and found this system very easy to install in both straight lines and curves. He also stepped the wall back in one section to make it more interesting.

Building consent wasn't needed as the wall was under 1.5 metres high. 
“The key to building a good wall is spending the time on the foundations,” said Noel. “I spent a lot of time, after digging a foundation ditch, filling it and compacting it with gravel to get a good even base. This took most of the time but made all the difference to a good straight finish to the wall.”

The third step was landscaping. The initial landscaping involved many hours backfilling the wall with the excavated topsoil. The second stage landscaping involved planting the dirt behind the wall to achieve a more aesthetic finish, rebuilding the concrete path to the door, and putting in new lawn.

The completed turnaround

The landscaping is a work in progress. Noel commissioned a planting plan, which he intends working to in the winter months. He intends hiring a rotary hoe to get the earth ready.

Noel is happy with the results – he has turning space in front of his garage and a refreshed garden area. He hadn’t added up the total cost but estimates the excavation work cost around $2,000 and the blocks came to about $6,000. Doing most to the work himself was a major saving.