Mark Oliver's World

Posted: 12/05/2021

Installing a Garden Office - Part 3

See the full series of posts, to find out how we got here.

Digging!

I have spent the day digging again!

I am trying to maintain the trees that my office will be sitting between.
Therefore I need to dig out the ground without hurting the trees.

My intention is to have the office sat above the ground, and that will be achieved by building/some/block/piers, that allow the floor to sit 150mm above the ground.

I'm also building/within permitted development so I am restricted to 2.5metres High to avoid needing planning. I am also building just over 1m from my boundary.

Because of all these decisions I am digging out the soil, but leaving the roots. This is a pain to do, but will allow the airflow under the building I need as well as maintaining the health of the trees.

It's fiddly because of a big lump of roots. So I'm pretending to be an archaeologist with a brush and trowel. It's slow work, but all foundation work is important and slow when building a structure you want to last.

Being in a high mositure area with the trees, it's vital I have this air gap.
So just call me Indiana Jones for now!
(Or even better, Dr Alan Grant from Jurassic Park as the roots look like a dinosaurs skeleton!)

Is It a Skeleton?

Anyway, still more digging to go, but it's coming along nicely.
I have moved about 20 wheel barrow fulls of stop soil into a big mound which later I will use to fill my front garden better. So it's been hard work (I'm not as fit as I used to be).

All in all I have taken off 20cms of top soil in the back of the area, which shows how such of a slope there is in the garden.

What's next I hear you say?

Well I need to finish digging out, then I need to build the block piers. More on that another day!


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