Case Study - Large Garden in Surrey - Update 1

The first phase of the garden build is to construct the structural walls. The rear conservatory terrace wall is 2.4m high and must be piled to ensure that the next door property is not undermined. The curved wall that supports the front of the conservatory terrace is being constructed using shuttering and poured concrete on a robust concrete footing to ensure stability of the terrace, the house and neighbouring house.

It is important that the position and dimensions of these walls are absolutely spot on. So, a visit to site is required by the designer (me) to help set out the walls. This involves identifying the exact point on the ground that represents my compass point on the drawing. I have plotted this point on the drawing using two triangulation points from the house. However, all my plans are hand-drawn and the master plan is on its fourth iteration – some slippage will almost certainly have occurred.

I work with Darren the foreman of the main contractor. To my surprise and delight, with a minimum amount of little fiddling about and much checking of related measurements we manage to plot the pivot point for the curved terraces with hardly any problems. Once identified a metal bar is banged into the ground and cemented into place. It is very important that this point remains constant as all terraces and the bands of pebble mosaic are calculated from here.

Now the pilers can start on site.