Landscaping in Kettering, priced in writing before anything starts.
Kettering gardens divide along exactly the same line as the houses, and the difference in what a garden costs to build here is larger than in most towns.
Behind the artisan terraces the gardens are long, narrow, walled on both sides and frequently reachable only through the house. Every slab and every bulk bag is carried, which is the single largest factor in the price and the reason a quotation given from photographs is worthless.
Behind the larger houses the plots are generous, there is usually a side gate, and a machine can reach the working area. The same garden design costs substantially less to build on one than on the other, and we would rather show you why than average the two into a rate.
On the villa plots the constraint becomes the planting instead. Mature trees inside a conservation area are protected whether or not a specific order exists, requiring six weeks written notice before even a heavy prune, and root protection areas extend further than the canopy, which affects where a patio or a base can go.
Front hard surfacing over five square metres needs a permeable material or drainage to a soft area within your boundary, or planning permission. Our landscaping page shows the range of the work, from patios and paths through to full garden rebuilds.
Four things we commit to on every job, rather than four things we say about ourselves.
Permitted development is not an exemption from Building Regulations. We arrange the North Northamptonshire Council inspections, meet the inspector on site at each stage and see the work through to sign off. We do not make the application itself, and we will tell you what is needed and when.
Free, and you get it before you commit to us. Party walls and skip licences are raised at quotation stage, not three weeks into the dig.
The same people do the groundworks, the brickwork and the fit out. Nobody hands your job to a subcontractor you have never met.
You get a straight answer rather than a padded price. It costs us a job occasionally and saves you a great deal more.
Process, specification and what moves the price are set out on our landscaping page.
The answers that genuinely differ from one Kettering street to the next.
Where a machine can reach the garden the job is quicker and cheaper. Where it cannot, we protect a route through the house and size deliveries to what can genuinely be carried through it rather than to what is convenient to order.
Removing a protected tree is a criminal offence and the fine can exceed the cost of the entire garden, so we check the designation before anything is quoted for removal.
Levels and retaining structures are designed and drained rather than stacked. Anything holding back a real change in level is a structural element and gets treated as one.
We walk the access route with you at the quotation and tell you honestly how many days of carrying a garden here will involve, because on these plots that is the number that surprises people rather than the cost of the materials.
Part of our wider building work in Kettering.
Send photographs and a rough brief, or call and talk it through. We will tell you if a job is not right for us.
Southfield Construction (Rugby) Ltd, registered in England and Wales, company 14209138.
