When I bought my house, I knew I wanted a double garage and my house was perfect for this to happen as I had lots of land and a very large driveway.
Before I could do anything, I had to contact my local council for planning permission, this process is an absolute must or you run the risk of being forced to pull the building back down. This would not happen if planning permission is given. I wont go in to planning Permission as the rules and laws vary all over the country. If in any doubt, just contact your local council office.
Planning permission approved, what next? In order to start the build, you will already know the size of garage you are wanting. Better having all this info on paper, believe me its easier.
I was ready to go, but before I could even think about my garage, I had to get a good level ground to start my "Garage Foundation". Unlucky for me my rear garden was on a hill and I had to extend my driveway too.
So I have lots of soil to remove, no problem. So I thought, I marked out my driveway and garage and calculated the amount of soil to be removed. This came to 15 tons. I then phoned a hire company to hire a mini digger, This was around £250 for the weekend, Great!! But when I phoned for a price on a skip, it was about £150 a skip and I needed about 7 or 8 skips. Problem was, I needed all the skips in the same weekend. The cost came to was around £1500 and this was before I even layed a brick.
I thought no chance, money was put aside for my build and I was doing it myself to save money and get the garage I wanted, so what was the answer? Dig it out with a shovel! It's free, It wont take me that long. (who was I kidding?)
So I bought a cheap car trailer on EBAY for £150 and started digging, and more digging, it was never ending. I broke 4 digging spades in a matter of weeks and my back was killing me. The worst part of digging out was not digging or the loading of the trailer, but the unloading at the recycle centre which meant I was double handling all the soil and giving myself twice the work.
My next blog will show the last of the digging and I can then start my foundations.
These are the photos of me digging out by hand: CRAZY
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