Hillside gardens levelled properly, not papered over.
Ilkeston is built on a hill and its gardens know it. Plenty of plots here drop away sharply from the back door, which is why so many Ilkeston jobs turn into level changes, retaining and steps rather than a simple square of paving.
We work right across Erewash, from the Victorian terraces around the town centre to the estates at Kirk Hallam and Cotmanhay and the newer housing at Hallam Fields, so the drive over is a short one.
The cheapest way to deal with a sloping Ilkeston garden is to ignore it, lay slabs on the fall and hope. That is why so many patios here sit at an odd angle or slide a few years later. The right way costs more up front and lasts decades: cut into the bank, retain it properly with drainage behind the wall, then build the paving off a level, compacted base.
Terracing a garden over two levels usually gives you more usable space than the same garden flat, because each level gets a job. A dining area near the house, steps down, then lawn or planting below.
The older Ilkeston streets are red brick and stone, and natural Indian sandstone sits against that far better than anything uniform. On the newer estates, where render and grey window frames are the norm, porcelain in a clean grey usually looks right.
We bring samples to the house before you commit, because a slab that looks perfect on a screen can look completely wrong against your own brickwork.
This is coal measures country and the subsoil is heavy clay, so water sits rather than soaks away. Every patio we build gets a fall away from the house, and where there is nowhere obvious for the water to go we add a channel drain or a soakaway rather than leaving it to find its own route.
The same applies under artificial grass. Without a properly compacted stone base and a drainage layer, a clay garden turns a new lawn into a sponge inside a season.
Indian sandstone, porcelain, block paving and decking.
Complete transformations from design to delivery.
Premium artificial turf and natural lawn installation.
Raised beds, borders, steps and timber features.
Walls, raised planters, steps and feature brickwork.
We work throughout Ilkeston and the surrounding Derbyshire villages, including:
Anything else you want to know? Get in touch and we'll be happy to help.
Three, usually. Cut into the bank and hold it back with a retaining wall, terrace the garden over two levels with steps between them, or build a raised platform out from the house. Which one is right depends on how far the ground drops and where you want the sun. We work that out on site and price the options rather than pushing one at you.
All of them, plus West Hallam, Shipley View, Stanton by Dale and the villages out towards Awsworth. Ilkeston is a short run from base so there is no travel premium on the quote.
Usually, yes. Clay does not drain, so the fix is engineering rather than hope: correct falls on the paving, a properly compacted sub-base, and a channel drain or soakaway where the water needs somewhere to go. We will tell you at the quote stage what your garden needs, and it goes on the quote as a line you can see.
Get in touch today for a free, no-obligation quote. We cover Derby, Derbyshire and surrounding areas.
