Porcelain Terrace, Raised Planters & Deck

A single flat run of grass, a set of patio doors, and nowhere to sit. The garden was not small so much as shapeless.

Keeping the soil

The turf was lifted and the soil kept rather than carted away. It went straight into the new beds. Removing spoil and then buying topsoil back is one of the quieter ways a garden budget disappears, and on a job this size it is a meaningful share of the cost.

The terrace and the path

A new MOT Type 1 sub-base was laid and compacted, then porcelain paving set out to roughly 5.2 by 2.4 metres and pointed in external porcelain grout.

The same slab runs down the path. That is a small decision that does a lot of work — one material reads as one garden, where a different paving on the path would have cut the space in half lengthways. White decorative shingle picks out the surround to the steps and keeps a clean line where the paving meets the lawn.

Planters that will still be there in fifteen years

Around ten linear metres of raised sleeper planters run from the edge of the terrace up to the decking — two sleepers high, so about 350mm above grass level, and 400 to 600mm deep.

Each one is waterproofed internally with Black Jack before it is filled. Planters fail from the inside, where the timber sits against wet soil for a decade with no air at it, and lining them is most of the difference between fifteen years and five. It adds very little to the build and it is invisible in the finished garden, which is precisely why it gets left out.

The far end

A pressure-treated sub-frame and timber deck of roughly four by three metres closes the garden at the far end, built ready to take a pergola over it.

Alongside it, a shuttered concrete base for the bike store, set 70 to 100mm above grass level so it drains and the bikes are not standing in water — the unglamorous item that stops them living on the new terrace instead.

About a week on site.