Indian sandstone patio with brick retaining walls and steps up to a new lawn after a full garden rebuild

Case study

A neglected back garden rebuilt with sandstone paving and a new lawn

Location: Kingston upon Thames (KT1)
Timescale: Three weeks
Services used: Indian sandstone paving, brick retaining walls, steps, turf lawn, side return
Approximate value: Available on request

The brief

A garden that had been left to itself for years

The garden was in a poor state when we arrived. Cracked concrete slabs lifting through the middle, painted blockwork walls falling apart, self seeded shrubs across the beds and a tired shed at the far end.

The ground also fell away from the house, so the usable space had been squeezed into a patchy strip of grass and a broken path down the side.

The owners wanted the whole thing dealt with in one go: somewhere to sit that fits a table, a proper lawn for the children, and a side return they could walk down without stepping around puddles.

Before and after

The same garden, three weeks apart

Before: overgrown back garden with cracked concrete slabs and crumbling painted block walls — Before.

After: new turf lawn and sandstone terrace across the back of the house following the garden rebuild — After.

The design stage

Drawn before it was dug

We split the garden into two clear levels. A generous Indian sandstone terrace across the back of the house, then a step up to a raised lawn framed by new brick retaining walls.

Brick was chosen for the walls to pick up the tones in the sandstone and the brickwork on the house, rather than rendering and painting them as the previous owners had done.

The side return was brought into the plan instead of left as an afterthought, paved in the same stone with a gravel margin along the house wall to keep splash off the brickwork.

Before: broken concrete path and worn grass down the side return of the house

The result

Two clear levels and a garden that gets used

The terrace takes a full table and chairs with room to walk around it, the brick walls hold a level lawn that drains properly, and the side return is now a clean paved route from the front gate to the garden. The sandstone tones sit against the brickwork rather than fighting it, and every joint, edge and margin was finished by hand.

After: side return paved in Indian sandstone with a gravel margin along the brick wall

Services used on this project

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