Help from builders please

[TheOriginalLongsider]

Can any builders etc give an educated guess on how much it would cost to excavate this garden and build a driveway up to the house with parking for 3 cars? I'm guessing about £20k. I'm interested in buying it but it has double yellow lines the whole length of the road.

Nowhere near Burnley by the way.

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[Shore claret]

House!!! That's bloody mansion.

[Newcastleclaret93]

any rough dimensions?
What is the access like?
What area of the country?

Without much information I would estimate approximately 15-17k (if the property is in the North)

[Funkydrummer]

There would appear to be quite a number of problems with your proposal.

The highways authority will need to give consent to the crossing of a footpath, and if granted will
insist on their standards being adhered to, as a minimum. The yellow lines that you have mentioned
may, only may, be a problem.

My main concern would be that if you excavated that garden, you are in grave danger of affecting
the foundations of the house. Excavation will obviously have to go far enough back from the footpath
to accommodate the length of the cars. From this level you will need some steps/ramp to be able to
walk up to the house. Have you enough depth to achieve this ? You will also need to be aware of the
location of drainage and services.

Good luck with your venture, but please make sure you get a very good contractor and preferably one
that can deal with all the required paperwork and consents.

PS Lovely property by the way

I've also noted the lamp post which also may need relocating, probably at your expense.

[WadingInDeeper]

Plus, is it built like that because rock is shallow, added difficulty for breaking out. Cost of retaining wall, are services running in from that side of the property which need relaying. Cost of testing the soil before disposal off site etc etc. A lot to consider.

[Lancasterclaret]

I reckon the chances of you getting planning permission for what you want to do is nil btw

[RocketLawnChair]

I can get you a load of tarmac for £250 Will drop it off in the morning.... after I've fed the horses...

[LeadBelly]

I've just been doing a job round the corner and have a load of spare tarmac due to unforeseen circumstances. I can undercut RocketLawnChair. Yours for £220 cash. Can even run you down to the cash machine to get the readies even.

[Quickenthetempo]

The council have to put dropped Kerbs in at your expense for a start.
But if you do get a good builder and permission I would look to run the drive length ways if at all possible. I obviously can't tell if it's possible without being there but I reckon it would save you half your budget if it is.
This would require one entrance one exit and maybe on a slight curve for access and egress if you can't go far enough back to manoeuvre the cars properly.

[Heathclaret]

Seems a shame to destroy all that exists and replace it with a driveway/car park.i

[Bfc]

Consider looking at the properties on that road to see if anyone else has put a drive in. If you find one knock on the householders door and see if they will give you a guideline of the cost and the benefits and drawbacks to doing the work.

[TheOriginalLongsider]

Thanks for all the replies. At the moment I don't have dimensions. I'm going to view the house on Saturday but I know the road and the area well. It's in South Wales. I think it's built like that because of the lay of the land. The road behind that house is the same level as the house. My understanding is that the council are keen to approve off-road parking around here and there is very little street parking. I hadn't thought about the foundations. If I decide to go for it I'll get it surveyed and costed by specialists. Thanks!

[Rileybobs]

There'll be a fair bit of muck to shift off site! There's no way you'll get planning to take a driveway all the way to the house, IMO. This would result in what would be about a 5m high retaining wall which will destroy the character of the street scene.

Is there not the potential to get some parking to the rear of the house where the road is level?

[thedoge]

Has this house already got a driveway looking at the photo it appears that there's a gap on the right hand side leading up to the house

[thedoge]

The lamppost looks like it's been newly installed as they haven't repaired the surface to the pavement yet also the wall has been repaired on the right hand side.Are you sure it's South Wales only I didn't realize they had so much limestone in that region.

[thedoge]

Must be South West Wales on the coast.

[TVC15]

Unless there is precedent with someone else doing the same thing nearby it's hard to see how you would get planning permission. The council will not want to change the look of the road....and this would change it significantly from the other properties.

Best think to do is talk to the local planning office - who may or not be helpful...as many planning departments are a nightmare. If you don't have any luck here then a local architect who knows the area and planning decisions etc will be your best bet.

[TheOriginalLongsider]

Neighbours on both sides have put driveways in but both are different. I can still keep the frontage in stone. It's in Mumbles. Apparently there have already been quotes of £100k because there would need to be underpinning works on the house. I've had an idea to build a double garage a the front in stone with the garden coming over the top of it. No driveway as such, just some parking in front of the garage for visitors.

[Silkyskills1]

'You pave paradise, put up a parking lot'

[Clarinetclaret]

Heres an idea, park the cars away from the house and use what you were born with to get to the house. Some lazy people around.

[bob-the-scutter]

I would just paint out the yellow lines one dark evening....a lot less expensive!

[Man of Kent]

Try parking around the back maybe? The front of that house presents a beautiful aspect and it probably matches the neighbours' front gardens too. A driveway and parking space would look hideous - and would be followed by a line of wheelie bins like all front garden parking spaces have! The chances of planning permission due to line of sight issues, splays and the fact that there are already double yellow lines there are probably zero. Buy it for what it is or walk away.

[thedoge]

Are you saying the house is around £100K with underpinning work .Who says it needs underpinning ,are the foundations not right .For that price you could knock it down and start again and still make a profit .I would have thought the price for this house in Mumbles would be at least £500K if not more.

[minnieclaret]

Unless getting a car up to house level is a priority, health reasons etc., could you not just dig out backwards from kerb and park 3 cars side by side. Negates any foundation problems.