Clearing up back path and deck

The back deck was gross and the first picture in the gallery pretty much shows how we found it, at least a foot of junk in some places (old plaster boards, kitchen units, roofing materials just rotting and compressing over the years).

The deck is now gone and will never be replaced with a deck. I see a deck as a cheap alternative to a beautiful stone patio which will always look great and never rot (note, I do see how a deck can make perfect sense when you want to get some height or on a slope etc.). Also, this deck was built directly onto bare earth so no wonder it rotted. If they had lifted it up a few inches, supported by concrete blocks, it probably would have been still okay today.

This area is rich with bluestone and as we know a good stone mason, we will eventually be making stone patios. This will be while off until we have the time, money and more importantly how we want the garden laid out. As it is we need to fill the skip and this is good fill 🙂

We are hoping to grade the garden such that the rear windows in the basement have as much light coming in as possible. It won’t be a lot but we can improve on what we currently have.

Going also are the finely crafted cement block walls, skillfully laided by Bodge Builders and Sons. In the UK these people are referred to as “Cowboys”. No disrespect meant to ranch Cowboys.

[UK informal] someone who is not honest, careful, or skilful in their trade or business, or someone who ignores rules that most people obey and is therefore not considered to be responsible:

Those builders are a bunch of cowboys – they made a terrible job of our extension.

I have a 3lb Estwing pound hammer and a Stanely concrete chisel which does take a long time, but you get there in the end. Oh yes, always wear safety glasses when doing this sort of work. I do also have a proper 10lb sledgehammer if needed and today arrived a 30mm x 1.5m monster of a crowbar. In the last picture in the gallery, you’ll see a huge concrete block. I want somehow to get this into the dumpster. It doesn’t look big but I doubt Aimee and I could lift it.

By the way, the walls are really at that angle.