Building and landscaping in Redditch

Redditch homes we work on

Redditch grew quickly as a new town, and a large part of its housing was built on planned estates between the 1960s and the 1980s. Those houses tend to share a few traits: open-plan front lawns with no boundary wall, shared footpaths running past the front door, garages set back in blocks, and back gardens that were shaped by the builder rather than the owner. Alongside the estates there are older streets around Headless Cross and Webheath, where houses are more varied and gardens are often longer and less regular.

Each of those types brings its own questions. An estate house may need its open frontage turned into proper parking. An older property may need tired brickwork tidied up or a garden reshaped so it can be used. We are a building and landscaping business for homeowners, so we can look at the whole of what you want rather than one isolated part of it.

Driveways on estate frontages

The most common Redditch request is turning a front lawn into somewhere to park. Many estate homes were designed when households had one car or none, and the parking bays that came with them are now nowhere near enough. Replacing the grass with a hard surface solves that, but there are two things to sort out before any digging starts.

The first is access from the road. If there is a raised kerb and a footway between your boundary and the carriageway, you will normally need a dropped kerb approved by Worcestershire County Council as highway authority. Driving over a full-height kerb is not allowed, and it damages the footway. The second is rainwater. A front surface that sheds water onto the road can need planning permission once it goes beyond a small area, so it is worth choosing a permeable finish or building in proper drainage from the start.

Widening an existing driveway is also a frequent job on estates, especially where a single-width drive sits beside a lawn. The new section has to be dug out and built up to the same depth as the old one, with matching levels and edging, otherwise the join shows and the two halves move differently. Our driveway installation page explains how we build a drive from the ground up, and our guide to what affects driveway cost helps you understand a quote before you compare it.

Gardens on sloping plots

Redditch sits on rolling ground, and plenty of rear gardens rise or fall away from the house. On some estates the builder simply graded the soil and turfed over it, which leaves a lawn that is awkward to mow and a patio that is either too small or perched at the wrong height.

Reshaping a sloping garden usually means creating one or two flat areas held up by a low retaining wall, then linking them with steps. That is a mix of hard landscaping and bricklaying, which is why it helps to have one team plan it. Our hard landscaping covers paving, paths, walls, steps and drainage. We do not provide planting or ongoing garden maintenance, so if you want new borders filled, that part is best handed to a gardener once the structure is in.

Extensions and general building

Not every Redditch enquiry is outside. Estate homes are often altered over the years: a garage converted, a porch added, an opening made between two rooms, or a tired exterior improved. Our general building work covers alterations, exterior improvements and the construction behind home improvement projects, and our bricklaying and interior plastering mean the finishing stages can be handled by the same people.

If a project might need planning permission or building regulations approval, Redditch Borough Council is the place to check. Doing that early avoids redesigning once materials are ordered.

How a Redditch job runs

It starts with a phone call, an email or the enquiry form, giving us a few details and your postcode. We then arrange a visit, because levels, access and drainage on a real site shape the work more than any description can. After the visit we send a quote. Once you are happy with it, we agree a start date that suits you and keep you informed as the work goes on.

We work Monday to Friday, 8am to 5pm, and Saturday, 8am to 1pm. We are fully insured and have been in business for seven years, and Redditch sits comfortably inside our usual working radius of up to around 40 miles. If you live just north of the town, our page on building work in Bromsgrove covers the neighbouring district.