CROCKETT & CROCKETTPAVING LTD
Landscaping & garden transformations
We design and construct complete outdoor spaces that bring together the practical, structural and visual elements of a garden.
Our approach
From excavation, drainage and retaining structures through to patios, walls, lawns, decking and finishing details, our team can manage the project as a complete installation.
Managing the wider landscape as one project allows levels, drainage, structures, paving and finishes to work together from the outset. This creates a more considered result and provides clear responsibility throughout the build.
In order
Six stages, one programme, and nothing done out of sequence.
We walk it with you, take the levels and find out where the water goes now. Everything else is designed off that.
Turf, topsoil and whatever is failing come out. The spoil goes off site in a grab lorry rather than being spread across the garden.
Land drains, soakaways and channels go in first, while the ground is open. It is the one thing you cannot add afterwards without wrecking the finish.
Walls off a proper footing, steps set out so every riser is the same height, and the levels fixed for good.
Sub-base compacted in layers, then the paving on a full bed with the falls set away from the house.
Turf or artificial grass, the beds filled and planted, and the lighting wired to where you will actually sit.
Levels and groundworks
Almost every garden we take on has a level problem in it. The ground falls away from the house, or it falls towards it, which is worse. Before we price anything we work out where the finished surfaces need to sit: the terrace safely below the damp proof course, the lawn at a height that lets water off it, the path meeting the side gate without a trip in it.
Then we dig to those levels rather than to the ground we found, and spoil goes off site instead of being spread about to hide a problem. Where the dig leaves a face of ground standing, it gets held by a proper wall or a graded bank, never by the edge of the paving. Falls are set with a laser and checked as we build, because the fall you cannot see is the one keeping a terrace dry in twenty years.
Hard landscaping
The hard landscaping decides how the garden gets used. A terrace wants to be big enough for a table with the chairs pulled out, which is usually bigger than people first draw. Steps want a rise you do not have to think about and a going deep enough to stand on properly. Paths want to run where people already walk, not where a plan says they should.
Underneath, it is all built the same way. Excavate to a firm formation, lay and compact a sub-base in layers, then bed the paving on a full mortar bed. Edges get haunched so nothing creeps outwards over the years. Porcelain is primed on the back before it is bedded, because without that the slab never grips the mortar properly and the corners start lifting a couple of winters in.
Soft landscaping and finishes
Turf is only ever as good as what sits under it. We take out the rubble and the compacted subsoil, bring in a real depth of topsoil, level it, roll it and lay turf onto a bed that roots will go into. Beds are dug over properly and built up where the ground stays wet, usually in sleepers, so the soil sits above the water and plants get a start rather than a fight.
The finishing details are the part people remember. Lighting ducted in while the ground is open, an outside tap, a bin store that is not an afterthought, edging that keeps the gravel out of the lawn. We lay the ducting and set the fittings while the trenches are still open, so the final electrical connection can be made and signed off by a qualified electrician without anybody lifting your new lawn to get a cable across it.
Our work
What a project can include
Clearance, levels, drainage, walls, paving, fencing, lawn and planting, run as one programme with one point of responsibility. You get a start date, an order of work and clear communication until the gate goes back on.
Gardens that fall away, or run towards the house, cut into flat usable areas. Steps built with an even rise and treads that drain, with retaining wherever the ground has been cut, so the new shape holds.
Facing brick, blockwork and sleepers on footings sized for the height they hold. Drainage behind the wall, weep holes through it, and piers or coping where a run wants finishing rather than just stopping.
Block paving, porcelain, natural stone, concrete and resin, laid on a base built for what will stand on it. Marshalls and Bradstone materials, set to falls and haunched at every edge.
Old turf and rubble out, topsoil in, levelled and rolled before the turf goes down. Beds dug over and raised where drainage is poor, planted up or left ready for a planting plan of your own.
Closeboard and panel fencing on posts set properly in the ground, decking framed and ventilated underneath, pergolas fixed to a base that will not move once the wind gets into them.
Questions
We work from Stafford Road in Caterham, CR3, and cover Surrey and the borders into Kent and south London. Caterham, Warlingham, Whyteleafe, Godstone, Oxted in RH8, Redhill and Purley are all easy runs for the team and the machines. If you are further out, call and ask. We would rather say no than run a job from too far away.
It depends on how much ground has to move and what is holding it. A rebuild with a new terrace, a lawn and some fencing is usually two to three weeks. A garden with structural retaining, a large amount of muck away and a garden room in it can run to six or eight. You get a programme with the quote, and we tell you plainly where weather can move it, because mortar and concrete do not care about deadlines.
Our core paving, landscaping and groundwork is delivered and managed by Crockett & Crockett. Where specialist trades are required, such as the electrical connection for garden lighting or a garden room, these are coordinated as part of the wider project, maintaining clear communication and responsibility throughout. We lay the ducting and set the fittings while the ground is open so that side is ready when it is needed.
Most garden work does not, but some can. Raising ground levels near a boundary, a wall above a certain height, work in a conservation area or to a listed building, and anything touching a protected tree are all worth checking with your local planning department first. Guidance changes and every site is different, so we flag anything on your job that looks like it needs that phone call.
Groundwork, walls and paving carry on all year. Hard frost stops mortar and concrete curing properly, so we plan around it rather than lay through it. Turf goes down best in autumn and spring, when it can root without being scorched or frozen. Planting is happiest in the dormant months. Winter is the quieter time to book, which usually means a finished garden by spring.
It is a normal problem, and it gets priced on the quote visit rather than discovered on day two. Depending on the house, that means a micro digger through on boards and sheeting, a crane or conveyor over the roof, or a smaller machine and more barrow work. We tell you which way it has to go and what it adds. Floors, drives and lawns are protected on the route through.
Marshalls products carry their own ten year guarantee, which covers the materials. Our workmanship is a separate thing and it sits with us: if something we built is not right, we come back and put it right. We are fully insured, quotes are written down before we start, and we hold 10 out of 10 on Checkatrade, where the reviews come from the gardens we built.
Get a quote
A garden built in the right order stays flat, stays drained and still looks right in ten years. That is the whole job.
Arrange a free site visit
Tell us a little about the project and we will come out, look at the ground and put a written quotation together.
Where we work
Based in Caterham, we undertake projects throughout Surrey and selected areas of Kent and West Sussex. For larger or more comprehensive projects, we are happy to consider work further afield.
