Hi,

I thought it would be best to get a couple of opinions on this, I'll try and keep it brief.

My house is a new build and I am having the basic boring grey patio flags taken out, extending the area and replacing it with something nicer.

I've a family friend that will be laying the base & flags and I have agreed to dig out the area (I have a mini digger arriving shortly as the area is around 30-35 square meters.)

The problem lies in that the garden slopes very slightly upwards away from the back of the house. This means that I will need to effectively dig further down the further I get away from the house to provide a level base (accounting for fall) for the patio, which I have no problem with. However this will leave a 'step up' onto the lawn and also a bare edge around a couple of around 3-6 inches.

The lawn itself isn't flat, thanks to the builders/landscapers laying the turf in a rush but also having to meet various drain heights within the garden. Also as the garden slopes slightly upwards the fences are also above the patio level by around half a foot to one foot at the furthest point.

I was considering after digging out the patio sub-base seeing just how bad/silly the step to the lawn looks and then if I have time attack and dig out/re-level the rest of the lawn with the digger. As I plan to have bushes etc around the edge of the garden I figure it won't matter too much about how the bottoms of the fences look with the earth line being around 2 brick heights below on average.

I will of course then have the drain height reduced so it sits flush with the new earth level. I'll probably reseed/re-turf later in the year or next spring.

The garden is approximately 100 square meters of which 35 will be patio and around 1/2 to 2/3rds would need shifting about and re-leveling.

Any input and advice would be appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Ben