Hard Landscaping
Hard landscaping in Surrey and South West London
Terraces, steps, retaining walls, paths and drainage. The structural half of a garden, built by employed crews rather than subcontractors.
9.86/10Hard landscaping, soft landscaping and where the two meet
Hard landscaping is everything in a garden that is built rather than grown: the terrace, the steps, the retaining walls, the paths, the edges, the drainage and the groundworks nobody sees. It is what we do most of, and it is the half of a garden that is expensive to put right if it is done badly.
We are landscape gardeners with employed crews, not a paving gang and not a design studio that subcontracts the build. That matters on structural work, because the levels, the sub-base depth, the wall foundations and the drainage all have to be decided by the people who then have to build them.
Soft landscaping, turf, topsoil, planting and borders, is priced and built in the same scheme, because a terrace with a bare strip of clay around it is only half a garden. Most of our domestic landscaping work is the two together.
Your options
The hard landscaping elements we build
Terraces and paving
Porcelain, Indian sandstone or block paving on a full mortar bed over a compacted MOT Type 1 sub-base, with falls set away from the house.
Retaining walls and steps
Brick, block-and-render or sleeper walls on concrete foundations, with drainage behind them, plus steps set to an even rise.
Paths, edges and drainage
Side returns, bin runs and garden paths, haunched edge restraints, channel drains and soakaways sized for the area they take.
Soft landscaping to finish
Topsoil, turf, planted borders and mulch, worked to a planting plan so the structure is not left sitting in bare ground.
Surrey and South West London
Hard landscaping in Surrey, from a yard in Thames Ditton
We work from a yard at Manor Farm in Thames Ditton and take on hard landscaping across east Elmbridge, Kingston and the Richmond riverside towns. That radius is deliberate: crews arrive on site early, materials come in on the same day they are needed, and we can drop back to a finished garden the same week if something needs a second look.
Surrey gardens throw up the same structural problems repeatedly. Clay that holds water and moves, gardens that fall the wrong way towards the house, Victorian and Edwardian plots with barrow-only access, and 1930s stock where the terrace has to be cut into a slope with a retaining wall to get a level sitting area. Those are hard landscaping problems before they are design problems.
Because the same company surveys, designs and builds, the answer to a level change or a drainage run is decided once and carried through, instead of being handed between a designer, a groundworker and a paving crew.
What's included
Every quote covers
- Site survey, levels and drainage checked before we quote
- Setting-out plan, and a 3D visual where our designer is involved
- Excavation, muck-away and skip or grab permits
- Compacted sub-bases built for the load they carry
- Foundations, retaining walls, steps and edge restraints
- Drainage into a channel, soakaway or existing run
- Topsoil, turf and planting to finish, then a full clear-up
FAQs
Hard landscaping questions we get asked
What counts as hard landscaping?
Anything built rather than planted: patios and paving, driveways, steps, retaining and garden walls, paths, edging, drainage, decking and pergolas, plus the groundworks under all of it. Soft landscaping is the growing half: topsoil, turf, planting and borders.
Do you do soft landscaping as well?
Yes, and we price it in the same quote. Turf, topsoil, planted borders and mulch are part of nearly every scheme we build. We would rather finish the garden than hand over a terrace surrounded by builder's clay.
Do you subcontract the work?
No. We run three and a half employed crews and our own in-house designer. The people who survey your garden are the people who build it, which is the main reason structural details do not get lost between trades.
How long does a hard landscaping project take?
A single terrace or driveway is usually one to two weeks. A full structural scheme with retaining walls, steps, drainage and planting is typically three to five weeks. You get a programme with the quote, and one crew stays on the job from start to finish.
Do I need planning permission?
Usually not for ground-level paving, paths and normal garden walls. It becomes a question with raised terraces near a boundary, walls over about a metre next to a highway, front gardens that are not permeable, and listed or conservation-area properties. We will flag it at the site visit if your job is one of those.
How much does hard landscaping cost in Surrey?
Most of our jobs land between £5,000 and £10,000 for a single element, and £20,000 to £40,000 for a whole-garden scheme. Access, spoil volume, level changes and drainage move the figure far more than the choice of slab. We fix the price in writing after we have measured the site.
Also worth a look
Related services
Patios & Paving
Porcelain and Indian sandstone terraces, laid on a proper sub-base with falls and drainage.
Patios & PavingFull Garden Transformations
Levels, structure, paving, planting and lighting, the whole garden in one programme.
Full Garden TransformationsDriveways
Block-paved driveways with correct edge restraints, drainage and a permeable finish.
Driveways
Free site visit
Get a fixed price for your hard landscaping
We'll come out, look at the space and give you a proper fixed price, not a ballpark over the phone.