A usable garden at handover

What garden work do you offer?

We keep it deliberately simple. Within a villa or house renovation we can include:

• Clearing overgrown plots, brambles, dead plants and accumulated garden waste.
• Debris removal: building rubble, old materials and anything left from the works.
• Levelling and soil preparation for lawns and beds.
• Simple fencing: repair or replacement of mesh fencing, posts and basic gates.
• Lawn: laying turf or preparing ground for seeding.

The aim is a clean, safe, usable outdoor space at handover, not a designed landscape.

What is not included?

Being clear about this saves misunderstandings. We do not design gardens, build swimming pools or lay paving, concrete slabs or driveways. Terraces, paths and driveways are handled by our sister site adoquinadomalaga.eu, and worn concrete surfaces by renovacionhormigonmalaga.eu. Retaining walls that hold back significant ground are structural and need a technician’s design. Planting schemes, irrigation design and long-term garden maintenance are best left to a gardener or landscape specialist.

Why include the garden in a renovation at all?

Because building work leaves its mark outside. Materials are stored on the lawn, scaffolding stands in the beds, skips and deliveries cross the plot, and rubble finds its way into corners. If nobody is responsible for putting that right, it becomes one more job you have to organise after the builders leave.

Including it in the same quote means one contractor answers for the state of the whole property at handover. We plan storage and access with the garden in mind from the start, protect what you want to keep, and restore what the works disturbed.

How do you protect existing plants and trees during the works?

Before work starts we walk the garden with you and agree what must be kept: mature trees, hedges, particular plants, irrigation lines you know about. Storage areas, access routes and the skip position are chosen to avoid them. Where something is close to the work area, it is fenced off or covered. Roots of large trees are easily damaged by vehicles and stored materials, so we keep heavy loads away from them where the plot allows.

Do you clear overgrown plots before a sale or a let?

Clearing on its own, without a renovation, is not the focus of this site. As part of a house renovation, yes: an overgrown plot is cleared, waste removed and the ground left tidy. Some town halls require plots to be kept free of dry vegetation, especially near woodland, and the rules vary by municipality (local requirements: to be verified with your town hall).

Can you level a sloping garden?

Light levelling and regrading for a lawn or beds, yes. Significant changes in level, cutting into a slope or building walls to hold back earth involve structural and drainage questions, and on hillside plots they can affect the stability of the ground; those need a technician’s design first. We will tell you at the visit which side of that line your garden falls on.

What about fences and boundaries?

We repair or replace simple boundary fencing such as mesh panels on posts and basic gates. Before replacing a boundary, check the property line and any community or urbanisation rules on fence height and type. Solid boundary walls are masonry work and can be included in the renovation quote where they are not structural retaining walls.

How is garden work quoted?

As separate lines within the renovation quote: clearing by area, debris removal, levelling, fencing by length and lawn by area. Photos of the garden from several angles, plus the approximate plot size, help us include it in the first estimate. Read about the whole process in how we work on a villa.

How can the garden affect damp in the house?

More than most owners expect. Soil or paving built up against an outside wall above the level of the inside floor pushes moisture into the wall. Beds watered right next to the façade keep its base permanently wet. Downpipes that discharge onto the ground beside the house soak the same spot every time it rains, and climbing plants hold moisture against render and can open cracks. When we tidy a garden at the end of a renovation, we look at these points too: lowering ground levels away from walls where it is straightforward, redirecting downpipe discharge and advising which plants to move. Where damp in a wall appears to come from the ground itself, we recommend a technician before any internal finishes are renewed. Our page on façade repair explains the wall side of the question.

When in the job does the garden work happen?

At the end. Scaffolding, deliveries, skips and the movement of materials all cross the garden while the house is being renovated, so any lawn laid early would be ruined. Clearing an overgrown plot can happen at the start, to give safe access and room for storage; levelling, fencing and lawn come once the heavy work has finished and the access routes are no longer needed. That is also why garden items are planned in the quote from the beginning, even though they are carried out last.

What about gardens on townhouse communities?

On many urbanisations the private garden of a townhouse sits next to shared gardens maintained by the community. Work in your own plot is yours to decide, but fences, hedges and anything on the boundary with shared areas may be subject to the community’s rules, and shared areas used for access during the works must be left as they were found. We point out these questions before work starts, so you can check them with the administrator.