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Ensure that they're building it on a slab of concrete at least 3"/75mm thick, falling slightly towards wherever you're sending the surface water. If its going right up to the house the finished surface should be a minimum of 4"/150mm below your damp proof course. This way you'll get no root problems OR give your house damp problems.
ColinTheBald-
It's MOT sub base :(
It's a mate's engineer husband and colleague who are looking at setting up some sort of trade business in the next few years. As a result is £3,6k - which is much cheaper than every other quote we've had. He did a full reno and extension of their house and all the finishing is to a high standard.
However, there are a few things like the lawn drainage to drain he doesn't really want to do, and my OH doesn't want to pay more for.
But yeah there are some things I'd of liked. However, I don't really have much say in this anymore.
Once they're here and we see what's what I might suggest concrete around the bay.
The lawn drainage is my main bug bear as based on the solutions he suggested I don't think he appreciates the combination of heavy clay, proximity to a water source, height of water table and the runoff from of uphill adjacent gardens. Or more likely he dgaf.
Also as my OH doesn't spend time in the garden over winter and spring they dgaf either.
hugo7
Also thoughts on this...
We've booked our patio in for jubilee week/weekend.
The raised beds are going, but we're keeping the bay inset into the patio.
It'll probably come up a course of bricks on the raised bed as you're looking at it now. And the soil doesn't go all the way up on the inside.
Obviously I don't want to do extra work I'm paying for, but is it worth me knocking out the bit of the bed around the bay now: a. to give more time to adjust. b. to get a better idea of how it'll look in advance?
I think I've answered my own question.
Also is there any extra precautionary stuff I can ask the builders to do to stop slabs getting lifted by roots and shoots etc?