Find a Landscaper you can trust in Padstow.

As a home or property owner, you’re generally allowed to build next to your neighbour’s fence as long as it’s on your own side of the property. With that in mind, there are certain laws that regulate how close a fence can be built to buildings on the same lot or neighbouring lots. In addition, there are also local bylaws that provide limitations on the placements as well as height of fences so as to address safety hazards. In this post, we’re going to give you a good insight into how close you can build to your neighbour. Let’s take a look!

In general, if the fence is in your boundary then you’re allowed to build a 2-metre high brick or wooden fence or wall. However, this may differ depending on your location in the UK. As a result, you may want to reach out to your municipality’s building department in order to determine what these rules and limitations are in your area. In the events whereby there are no such restrictions but you’re still concerned, you can try informing your neighbour what your concerns are. However, if they’re not receptive there are some steps you can take to ensure your plans go as smoothly as possible. These steps include the following:

• Ensure to leave sufficient space for both the posts and footings
• Stagger your fence posts in order to make sure you’re not digging your neighbour’s
• Consider using concrete posts as they’re much stronger and will last a lot longer
• Use kickers or plinths for raised gardens and flower beds
• Make use of concrete plinths as they won’t rot over time like a wooden fence.

Yes, your shed does need a base. This is to give it a solid, level foundation. Open soil will not help with the longevity of the shed itself or the contents within. The best materials to use to make your shed base are concrete, natural stone or wood.

1. Start in one corner of the sub-frame and position the first board across the inner joists. You want the deck board in the opposite direction to the inner joists, ensuring that it’s flush with the frame. Position any end-to-end joins between the deck boards halfway across an inner joist so you can screw both boards into the joist for stability. Make sure you keep a gap of between 5-8mm to allow for expansion of the wood.
2. Begin to screw your deck boards to the joists. You’ll need to secure the deck board to every joist is covers along your deck frame. Use two screws for every joist. Mark where you’re going to add your screws, ensuring that they are at least 15mm from the end of the board and 20mm from the outside edges. Drill pilot holes for the screws, being careful to only drill through the deck board and not the joist. Then screw the decking screws into the holes.
3. Continue to screw in the deck boards, ensuring you leave the correct expansion gap. You can stagger the deck board joins across the deck for more strength.
4. Sand down any cut ends if you need to before applying decking preserver to protect the timber from rotting.

Do I Need A Gardener Or Landscaper?

This is a question that’s often asked by most homeowners across the globe. While it’s true that both gardener and landscaper can make your garden a lot more beautiful and pleasing to the eye, it’s also crucial to know the significant difference between the two professions.

So who is a landscaper? We have two types of landscapers: the landscape architect whose job is to design a landscape and a landscape builder whose job is to do the physical requirements of creating a landscape. Both types are very interrelated such that landscape architects can also be landscape builders or have one or more of the other type in same team (as most landscaping building projects will be supervised by a landscape architect).

Now the main difference between a landscaper and a gardener is the type or scope of work they’re qualified to undertake. Generally, landscapers require just one or more types of trade licences to work, meanwhile a gardener may or may not need a trade licence. So who is a gardener?

It’s the job of a gardener to come in and maintain the landscape garden once the landscape has successfully built the outdoor area. In other words, it’s part of a gardener’s services to prune plants, mow the lawns, do the weeding, fertilize your soil and much more. It’s not their job to construct a large retaining wall or a gazebo. And you can also be sure they won’t appear with a backhoe ready to sculpt your landscape.

Overall, deciding who to choose between a gardener and a landscape depends on the type or scope of work that’s required. With the aforementioned differences, you should be able to easily determine who to call when in need of a landscaping or gardening service.

How To Repair A Pothole In Gravel Driveways

When the integrity of your gravel driveway is impaired not only does it have a negative impact on the curb appeal of your property, but also makes your driveway a danger zone. If your driveway needs to be repaired, you’d simply have to grab the bull by the horn and get it done - the sooner, the better to avoid the problem getting worse and to have your beautiful gravel driveway back as soon as possible.

The major cause of potholes in driveways is usually water, when it gets trapped beneath the surface of the driveway. Therefore, you may also want to enhance the drainage in the area as part of your repair. The repair process is quite simple for confident do-it-yourselfers, but if otherwise, then calling in a reliable professional will save you some time and extra money that can result from possible errors. So how do you repair gravel driveway potholes?

✓ Prepare the area. This involves removing all forms of debris from the pothole. To achieve this, you can rake, shovel or brush the loose stones, soil and other debris from the pothole.

✓ Fill the pot hole. Make use of a coarse gravel to fill up the pothole to a depth of about 3 inches beneath the driveway’s level. Upon the filling, simply tamp down the coarse gravel using a commercial tamper or any available homemade option. Once done, the final 3 inches to the surface of the gravel driveway should then be filled up with gravel which perfectly matches the colour and texture of the remaining driveway.

✓ Compact the patch. To achieve this in an easy and fast way, simply run your car’s wheel up and down over the repaired spot gently a couple of times. This will be enough to compact the patch and seal the pothole.

Patios do not require lots of maintenance. They will only need occasional cleaning to make sure that the material keeps its original appearance. It's always best to clean your patio with a pressure washer and occasionally tap each slab or brick just to check the sand underneath hasn't washed away.

Everyone wants a good-looking lawn! If you’re wondering the best time to scarify your lawn, then you’ve come to the right place! In this post, we’re going to consider this in order to help you make the best-informed decision possible. Let’s take a look!

The short and simple answer to this question is when your grass is actively growing. This is the best time to scarify a lawn as it enables it to recover faster once it has been scarified. What’s more? The conditions also have to be appropriate as extreme weather condition, be it too cold, too warm, too dry or too hot, will hinder the quick and proper recovery of your lawn. It’s also important to take note that scarifying of a lawn is going to leave the soil exposed which makes way for weed and other unwanted plants to grow.

During the year, there are two different times which tends to provide the most ideal conditions to scarify a lawn. The first of these periods is late March or April when the spring is in the air and your grass receives all the warmth and moisture it needs to thrive. It’s also advisable not to wait till too late in the spring as right after this period comes the heat and dryness of summer. Furthermore, the lawn shouldn’t be scarified too heavily during the spring as summer usually comes with weed seeds which means your grass won’t recover fast enough and weeds will quickly make way for themselves.

If you wish to scarify your lawn heavily, then the perfect time to do this would be in September or October – during autumn. During this period, the summer weed seeds would be gone and the grass will grow properly.

What Do Landscape Gardeners Charge?

If you’ve decided to hire a landscaping professional for your gardening, you’ll probably be wondering how much it’s going to cost so you can start planning. A landscape garden serves a wide range of purposes from beautification of your surrounding and building to serving as a perfect spot for family and friends’ get-togethers and to brighten up one’s life. However, we must also note that the garden landscaping does not come cheap. In order to make it look great and send a clear message, there’s need for a effective and careful planning as well as consideration which perfectly combines both beauty and utility ( as not every landscaping idea works perfectly for every house). So just how much will landscape gardeners charge?

Just like most home improvement efforts, the cost of landscape gardening is influenced by a wide array of factors. These factors include the scope of the project, the size of the garden, the type of material and size of your patio, the cost of the plants and mulches, the professional daily or hourly rate as well as the unique treatment of the aesthetics of planting.

In general, landscape gardeners can charge as little as a price ranging from £15 to £20 and £45 per hour greatly influenced by the location as well as the gardening services required. As a daily rate, professional gardeners tend to charge about £140 to £200 per day. However, it should be noted that the major factors influencing the price that a gardener will charge is based on the area you live in as well as the size of your garden. For instance, if you live in an area with higher demands like London, you can expect to be charged a lot more than anywhere else.