I feel your pain I’ve been gardening for 10 years and every single new build is the same and it’s not just what’s underneath it’s when everything has settled is when the problems get worse as the Roding eyes and manhole tops start standing higher than the lawns like little towers in the lawns and your doing everything possible to avoid taking chunks out your freshly sharpened blade 😭

When I bought my new house 17 years ago it was HORRIBLE trying to plant flower gardens. Took hours just to dig a few holes for a few plants. My yard was clay loaded with huge rocks. NIGHTMARE! 17 years on, my yard is finally pretty. But took back breaking work to get it there. Great video Lee!

Very true Lee, Unbelievable what they bury in new build gardens

Great video having worked on new builds myself doing paving all sorts of junk are underneath the gardens and well compacted as well very difficult for gardeners for sure!

Well said mate. They’re all the same, does my head in!

Completely agree mate, down here in London a lot of the new builds don’t come with a finished garden, just a garden full of clay & rubble. It’s a madness, anyways have a cracking weekend👍🏻

Very sad, Lee. You are so right, about new build sites. I rented a place, that was 5 years old. First year I was there and it was perfect. After that, it was impossible to maintain the grass. So much rubble and bricks, underneath a thin layer of top soil and turf. You’d have to spend a fortune, to dig it all up and start again. What you see on the surface is all very well…………..

Ha, this brings back so many memories! Back in 1974 I was employed on a building site in Yeovil, our little gang was normally responsible for doing all the concreting and pipe laying , but on what was probably the hottest day of the year a load of turf arrived and we got told to lay it . The digger driver did his best to prep the area with his bucket and the rest of us set to laying it . Well at least we got it the right way up . After that I had to get the big vibrating roller “to stick it down”. . After about an hour of this the foreman came over to have a look and seemed surprised that he could just lift up a turf , I think he must have thought they came ready with adhesive on the bottom side . So guess what I had to go over it all again . Finally knocked off at about 8pm

Great speech and editing!

I've done this twice lol . I just didn't learn my lesson the first time . Although I gotta admit I haven't been as unfortunate as these new builds you've shown Great video 👍

Great video. Lee, please do a solution video as I'm a rookie gardener willing to learn, thanks

Great content again

When my neighbours had an extension built they dug up the complete barrel of a cement mixer when they dug the footings

My parents had a new house in the 1960’s built on what was farmland. We spent years digging out rocks. Some we could barely lift. The land had been used for grazing cattle and the soil was good but the ground was 50% rocks.

Lee u are very right no soil at all and pure hardcore below which is mane not a bad thing as most fronts will be paved to allow a second car to be parked. New house have no room around them where I live. No where to park cars so the lawns get ripped out.

Hi Lee, more info from TN. We live on what is called The Plateau, 2000 ft above sea level and is all rock. We grow rocks here, you can mow one day and 2 weeks later hit a rock where there wasn’t one before. Tree roots the same, they don’t go downwards but round like an umbrella, and consequently the trees get blown over in strong winds regularly. The rock is quarried and sold all over the world I understand. Hence no top soil and we had 5 dumpster truck loads of top soil brought in to do my garden and lawn around our home, it takes 120 56litre bags of mulch each spring to keep the plants as healthy as I can.. you can see why I could use you help lol, wish I could pay for you to visit, tho you would tear your hair out I think. Hope I’m not boring you but contact back home ( tho I’m from York’s.). Into gardening is a joy. One question if I may , what is your feelings about overhead gas heaters in a greenhouse please ?. Seems odd to me, as heat rises anyway. Bye for now , stay safe and thanks for the tips. Hubby and I loved the one about blowing downwards so it goes up the trouser legs, we need that here, as we get 7 months of temps. In the 80f mark or above with high humidity. X TN.

Bang on there mate, nowhere near enough soil. I maintain a few new build banked areas and there is literally no more than 1cm of soil down, then its just rocks and rubbish. The grass struggles big time. 😢

LEE so said!!!

At least there are stripes, lol. I decided to create a border in my back garden, house built mid 50's, but shocked at how many bricks, or chunks of cement. Xxx

Any one could lay a sandstone patio on that, 😝 Came across a few of them.over the years needs heaps and heaps of manure to build a soil base good video

Thank you for the video. Can you include a video what to do about it, as will be moving into a new build soon. I’m thinking raised beds to grow veg. Would that work?

Sad but so true

How do you get rid of the hardcore? I’ve just started renovating my backyard which is about 50 square meters. I started going over the top soil with a cheap £105 til/rotivator from B&Q and it’s taken about 1-2 inches off and churned up a lot of stone. However after putting the spade in, it his pure hard core and the soil is near pure clay. I am feeling a little lost as 50 meters square is quite a lot of work for the amount of free time I have 😢

They do show the same for the garden as they do for the houses, they're both junk, new builds are awful quality these days and i certainly wouldn't buy one. Nice to show just how much junk is under the lawns.

I just wanted to say I’ve 56 been a Gardener since I left school and I couldn’t agree more. I’ve recently been working on new building and I’ve removed Concrete Blocks Bricks Bags of Cement scaffolding planks all forms of plastic. All this waste should have been disposed off responsibly but that would mean loosing profits.

Most of my work is at new builds..thousands of these homes around Preston.. Trouble is the majority believe that they are the only ones with the problem..until they look next door then next door.. I try to be kind but frank with my advice.. Not what they wanna hear after having spent £350K on a sparkling new home..

It’s really bad. I’ve been to a few new builds and I’ve had two bad experiences. First one was somebody had ran a hose under about 2 inches of top soil and turf to a tap by a shed. Fork in ground, home made sprinkler system. 🤣 Second one Sky or Virgin had ran a cable from the box on the path to the house. But they could dig down further than 4 inches. Went over it with a rotoavator. Whoops 🤣

Only at that pub last night. Don't go, it's very expensive for average food. Any idea why these houses were for sale and now only for rent. And why all barricaded off and deep excavations on the way in. So true about new builds. When we bought our house I dug down 2ft and replaced all the spoil with half decent soil.

I am wondering if the drainage is also bad for the houses as well. Where is the water suppose to go after a rain? The whole set up looked pretty bad.

Ideally should it be rotavated new top soil remove all this hard core?

in most cases like this mate. They want to spend the least amount of money especially on the outside

It's when you come to quote, the owner can't work out why it's so expensive to sort out!! ☹

Hi can you make video from your mulcher? Maby i can use 1 of them

I believe new builds use grass the same as plaster. It's all about making things look nice, never mind what's underneath or what is hidden!!!! New builds need a lot more money spending on them to get them to a decent condition.

I’ve been a landscaper for 15 years doing garden design, all new builds are the same the ground is crap. Your grass is never level, flat when your mowing it’s like you’re on a wave you’ve either got a slope towards the house or away the patio if you can call it that is so small you can only put one chair out and it’s been laid on just sand or dob and dab. Plus the manhole coves Jesus I did two the other day they were precisely 500mil away from each other one was 100mil higher than the other 😂

Are you UK based? I got the same issue in my garden. NHBC guidelines clearly say that they need to remove the stones within 45cm and my builder has not adhered it. It is very disappointing. I cannot plant any trees without machines. Don't know whether not following NHBC guidelines enough for suing the builder.

I want the garden with the most manhole covers in it please...

I've said for years I would be furious if I had bought a new house and it came with the gardens the way they do. Just dump all the waste from the build into the garden and cover it with soil to cut costs! Hate working on new builds

Moved into a 7 year old 'new build' with a neglected lawn/garden spring last year. Full of moss, weeds and thatch. Performing renovation work this autumn and have started scarifying and aerating. It has destroyed me with the amount of boulders I'm hitting! With each rock painfully removed I slowly come to the realisation that the best course of action would be to lift everything and lay new topsoil. With the sheer amount and size of rocks I'm lifting, I'm beginning to wonder if they are there to help drainage, but surely not? I'm on an old industrial site so the best explanation (imo) is poor renovation by the developer

👍👍👍

I know what you mean oh so well my house is 8 years old and I've airated it and put 40tonnes of top soil on my garden it's still terrible I'm fed up with spending money on it now so going to deck over it and build raised beds say me I'm going to get someone else to do it as my disabilities are getting to much for me now to it myself

This is why I want a cottage in the middle of a feild none of that stuff anywhere around

Hey Guys!! I have an idea....when we build our next batch of houses, why don't we use up all those random bricks we have had left over during the past 20 years

i havent watched the video yet but i know the answer. the builders dont care. its all rubble and crap underneath. Get a discount off your newbuild by having the garden unfinished and get a pro to put the garden in from scratch

I was digging pallets out of my lawn For ages Horrible Moved now Builders bury everything!!!

I personally cant wait for my tiny, shit gardened £400,000 new-build that I need a 40 year mortgage to buy

Get a Persimmon new build and they don't even do you the decency of putting any top soil down. To top it off they turfed on the hottest day of the year!

Honestly for grass that’s fine they don’t grow roots bigger then 5 inches, but for plants such as 5 gallon to 24 gallon never would work

this is the reas on I don't do new builds

That’s a shame - you mentioned hardcore and my ears twitched 🤣

New builds are terrible aren't they. There's some going up near here and the new owners will be lucky to grow anything in their gardens by the look of how things are now.

Yikes that terrible!!! Unatural and cramped.I only live in a trailer park but created a beautiful garden in my small space.

They might as well put artificial turf down.

That brick work is hideous

looks like raised beds it is. jah!

The gardens, the houses... It's all nasty, poor quality, cheap crap.

They put that fence up because they knew you were coming😂😂😂😂

Smoke and mirrors Lee

Bit of a pointless video if you're not going give solutions!