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Home improvement guides
Practical, reviewed advice for planning repairs and projects, choosing the right pro and knowing what to ask before you hire.
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494 guides
- Guide
Grading guide
Grading is the reshaping of the ground itself: cutting down here, filling there, setting the falls so that water runs where you intend, and finishing at a level that works with the house, the boundaries and whatever is…
11 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Excavation guide
Excavation in a domestic setting covers everything from a footing trench for a garden wall to digging out a whole plot for a basement extension.
11 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Block Paving guide
Block paving is the default British driveway surface, and for good reasons: it can be lifted and relaid over a service trench, it copes with a settled patch without a full replacement, and it is one of the few surfaces…
11 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Paving guide
Paving a British property means laying a hard surface that has to cope with a great deal of rain and very little frost, and the single most important thing to know before anyone quotes is that the ground between your…
14 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Tarmac Driveways guide
Tarmac is the everyday British name for a driveway surfaced in a bituminous mixture, and it is a slightly misleading one.
11 min read21 September 2026 - Guide
Driveway Repair guide
Repairing a driveway in Britain is rarely just a surfacing decision, because the planning rules attached to front gardens changed and most homeowners never heard about it.
13 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Patios guide
A patio is the one piece of hard landscaping most British households actually use, and the planning position for a ground level one is generous.
15 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Walkways guide
Garden paths get less thought than driveways and terraces, and yet the front path is the piece of hard landscaping most likely to need planning permission, because it usually runs between the house and the highway.
13 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Retaining Walls guide
A retaining wall holds ground at two levels, and in Britain the thing it is mostly holding back is water. Saturated clay is heavier than dry clay and pushes harder, prolonged winter rain keeps the backfill loaded for…
13 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Fences guide
Fencing is one of the few jobs around a British home where the rule is a planning rule rather than a building control one, and where the numbers are worth knowing before you ring anybody.
13 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Gates guide
A gate is treated by planning law as a means of enclosure, which puts it under the same permitted development limits as a fence or wall: two metres in height generally, and one metre where it is next to a highway used…
12 min read14 September 2026 - Guide
Outdoor Kitchens guide
An outdoor kitchen is a permanent installation rather than a barbecue you wheel out: fixed cabinetry, a worktop, a built-in grill or pizza oven, usually power, often water, and increasingly a fridge.
11 min read21 September 2026
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