--- title: "Landscaping in Hedge End & Hampshire | Buildings For Life" description: "Hard landscaping in Hedge End and Hampshire: site preparation, levels, drainage, retaining walls, paths, driveways and turf, built on proper groundwork." url: https://buildingsforlife.com/landscaping/ --- Hard landscaping in Hampshire # Hard Landscaping in Hedge End and Southern Hampshire Site preparation, levels, drainage, retaining walls, paths, patios and turf. Landscaping carried out by a building firm, so the ground under your garden is prepared to the same standard as a foundation. [Call 07853 945013](tel:+447853945013) Most gardens that fail do so below the surface: a lawn wet all winter, a sinking path, a leaning sleeper wall. We treat landscaping as groundwork first, so levels, drainage and walls are right before anything goes on top. Buildings For Life is a family-run building company from Hedge End with over 40 years in the trade. The planting plan is yours. The structure it sits in is ours, and a retaining wall gets the same care as a house foundation. ## Hard Landscaping We Carry Out Hard landscaping is everything in a garden that is built rather than grown. It sets the levels, routes and edges, and the rest depends on it. Boundary walls and paving detail sit on our [patios and garden walls](https://buildingsforlife.com/patios-and-garden-walls/) page. - Clearing overgrown plots: old concrete, shed bases and failed paving out - Regrading slopes and setting new levels across the garden - Surface water and land drainage - Retaining walls, steps and raised beds in brick, stone, block or sleepers - Paths, driveways, edging and paved areas - Topsoil, turf and seeding to finish ## Site Preparation, Levels and Drainage Every job begins with the levels, surveyed with a laser from a datum on the house. Getting it wrong is expensive to put right, and water must never be shed onto next door's garden. - Vegetation, roots and old surfaces cleared, spoil taken away - Topsoil stripped and stockpiled for reuse where it is good enough - Cut and fill to the new levels, fill compacted in layers not tipped in one go - Drainage laid before any surface goes down - Clay holds water and moves with the seasons; gravelly ground drains readily - Land drains on clay: perforated pipe in stone, falling to a soakaway or surface water drain ## Retaining Walls, Steps and Raised Beds A retaining wall holds back tonnes of wet soil, and it fails when it is built like an ordinary garden wall. The difference is the footing, the thickness and the drainage behind it. - **Footings.** Sized for the height and the soil held back, below the frost line - **Construction.** Reinforced blockwork faced in brick or stone; sleepers on lower walls - **Drainage.** Weep holes, a perforated drain behind and clean stone backfill - **Protection.** A membrane keeping wet soil off the back of the brickwork - Taller walls, or any holding up a drive, get an engineer’s design - Steps on their own footing with even risers; raised beds still need footings and drainage holes ## Paths, Driveways and Paved Areas A garden path takes feet and a wheelbarrow. A driveway takes a car turning its wheels on the same spot every day, so the build-up is deeper and the edges restrained. - Paths: dug out, sub-base compacted, finished in gravel, blocks or slabs on a mortar bed - Driveways: deeper sub-base in layers, haunched kerbs so nothing creeps outwards - Stepping-stone paths through lawns, and paved bases for bin and bike stores - Over five square metres of front garden draining to the road needs planning permission - Permeable paving, gravel or water taken to a soakaway keeps it permitted development - A dropped kerb is a separate application to the highways authority ## Turf, Topsoil and Finishing The soft finish goes on last and depends on the ground beneath it. Turf laid onto subsoil driven over during the works will yellow in the first dry spell. - Compacted ground broken up, screened topsoil spread to an even depth - Raked level and firmed before any turf or seed goes down - Turf laid in staggered rows like brickwork, then firmed and watered in - Seed for large or shaded areas, where a mix beats standard turf - Lawn finished just above path and patio edges so a mower runs over them - Edging strips, bark or gravel to borders, cut lawn edges, waste removed ## How a Landscaping Job Runs Landscaping is a building job in the open air, so access and weather shape the programme. We mark the design out with pegs and string before anything is dug: moving a line is easy then and hard once concrete is poured. - Access checked first: a side passage for a mini digger, or everything in by barrow - Spoil and waste out by skip or grab lorry, sited where you agree - Clearance and dig-out, then drainage and sub-bases, then walls and steps - Paving next, with topsoil and turf last so barrows are not tracked across them - No concrete or mortar laid when frost is forecast - Turf establishes best in the cooler, wetter weeks of spring and autumn How It Works ## From first visit to finished garden Groundwork before surfaces, every time. Three steps from idea to handover. 1. ### Tell us the job Use Quick Quote Online or call. Tell us how you want to use the garden and send a few photos, including where the rain goes now. 2. ### Site visit and written quote Pete walks the garden, checks the levels against the house and looks at drainage, soil and access. You get a written quote setting out the dig-out, sub-base depths, drainage, walls, steps and surfaces. 3. ### Build and sign-off Clearance, drainage, footings and sub-bases first, then retaining walls, steps, paths and paving, all set out from one datum, then turf or seed. We clear the site and walk it with you. Ready when you are. Areas We Serve ## Where we carry out landscaping We carry out landscaping from Hedge End across nearby towns and villages, including Botley, Curdridge, Shedfield, Swanmore, Bishops Waltham, Fair Oak, Bursledon, Sarisbury and Whiteley. Rural plots with long drives and sloping paddocks need a very different approach to access and levels from compact new-build gardens, and we plan each job around the ground it sits on. - Hedge End - Bishops Waltham - Botley - Upham - West End - Warsash - Hamble-le-Rice - Chandlers Ford - Romsey - Winchester - Chilworth - Southampton - Fair Oak - Bursledon - Curdridge - Netley - Bishopstoke - Eastleigh - Swanmore - Hythe - Shedfield - Marchwood - Swanwick - Whiteley - Rownhams - North Baddesley - Sarisbury - Compton - Holbury - Totton - Locks Heath - Dibden - Titchfield - New Alresford - Cheriton - Kings Worthy [areas we cover](https://buildingsforlife.com/areas/) Related Services ## Work that often goes with this - ### Patios & Garden Walls Porcelain and stone patios on a properly dug base, and brick or stone garden walls with piers and copings that stay straight. [Patios & Garden Walls](https://buildingsforlife.com/patios-and-garden-walls/) - ### Structural & Groundworks Foundations, drainage, slabs, steel beams and opening up walls: the work underneath every extension and new build. [Structural & Groundworks](https://buildingsforlife.com/structural-and-groundworks/) - ### Brickwork The trade Pete started in over 40 years ago: new walls, matching old brick, piers, arches, repointing and natural stone. [Brickwork](https://buildingsforlife.com/brickwork/) FAQ ## Landscaping: questions people ask first Question not here? ### How much does landscaping cost? It depends on how much ground has to move, what needs retaining, access for machinery, drainage and the materials chosen for paths and paving. We give a written quote after a site visit rather than a guess. ### How long does a landscaping project take? A single path or a new lawn can take a matter of days; a full garden with retaining walls, drainage and paving usually takes several weeks. Weather, access and material lead times all affect it, and we give a timeframe with the quote. ### Do you do planting and garden design? Our focus is hard landscaping: levels, drainage, walls, steps, paving, topsoil and turf. If you have a garden designer or a planting plan, we build the structure to suit it and leave the beds prepared for planting. ### Do I need planning permission for landscaping? Most garden landscaping does not. Common exceptions are hard surfaces over five square metres in a front garden that drain onto the road, walls or fences above certain heights, raised platforms, and work at listed buildings or in conservation areas. Check with your local planning authority. ### What time of year suits landscaping? Hard landscaping can be carried out for most of the year, but concrete and mortar are not laid in frost, and very wet weather slows groundwork on clay. Turf and seed establish most reliably in spring and autumn.