Landscaping in Corrimal, Reworking Yards That Have Grown In
Corrimal grew around the colliery and the cokeworks, and the yards here are usually old enough to have a history. The house has been there decades, something was built in the back garden at some point, a tree went in that nobody planned for, and the whole thing has slowly stopped working.
That is a different job to starting with bare dirt and it needs a different conversation. The first question is not what to build, it is what stays, and that is a decision only you can make. An established block gives you things money cannot buy quickly: a mature tree, a hedge that has taken fifteen years to fill in, a brick edge that still runs true. It also gives you problems: roots under the paving, a sleeper retaining wall twenty years past its life, levels that were changed once and never finished. The suburb runs from the escarpment down towards the coast, so blocks vary street to street and the drainage answer is different on each.
Marcio is Wollongong based and Corrimal is a straight run up the highway. The retaining, fencing, structures and steelwork are all our own work, which on a rework is the bulk of the job, with demolition, paving, turf and planting brought in around it.
Landscaping Work We Do in Corrimal
Replacing Old Timber Retaining in Corrimal
Sleeper walls from the eighties and nineties fail at the posts, underground, out of sight, so the wall looks sound until a section lets go. We check what the posts are doing before quoting, then rebuild in concrete sleeper, block or treated timber depending on the height and what the yard has to do above it.
Keeping What Is Worth Keeping in an Older Corrimal Garden
A mature tree, an established hedge, a brick edge that still runs true. We sort the yard into stays, goes and borderline before any design happens, so you are making those calls rather than finding out afterwards that something came out because it was in the way of a machine.
Fixing Levels Someone Else Started
A lot of older blocks have a half finished change of level from a previous job. We pick the levels up properly, get the fall running where it should, and finish it rather than building on top of it and inheriting the same problem in a new garden that cost real money. That usually means opening up what is there before anything new goes in.
New Fencing to Suit the Yard
On an older block the fence line is usually as tired as the garden. Timber, Colorbond or steel, with the posts set for the ground rather than to a standard depth. Gates are made in our own shop, so they fit the opening rather than the catalogue and they still swing properly in five years.
Yards We Have Rebuilt Around the Illawarra
An older backyard with the failed timber retaining replaced and the levels reset before new turf.
Working With a Yard That Is Already There
An established block gives you things money cannot buy quickly. A mature tree, a hedge that has taken fifteen years to fill in, a brick edge that still runs true. It also gives you problems. Roots under the paving, a retaining wall built from railway sleepers that is twenty years past its life, levels that were changed once and never finished properly.
We walk the yard before quoting and sort it into three piles. What is worth keeping and working around, what has to go, and what is borderline. The borderline list is where the real conversation happens, because keeping a mature tree usually means changing the design around its roots, and that is a choice rather than a given. Working around a root zone rules out footings close to the trunk and changes where machine access can go, which has a cost in usable space that is worth seeing before you decide.
Old timber retaining is the one we see most in Corrimal. Sleepers that went in during the eighties or nineties have generally done their work, and they fail at the posts, below ground, out of sight. Replacing them is often what unlocks the rest of the yard, because the new levels have to start from a wall that is going to hold and nothing built on top of a failing wall is worth the money.
Being close to the escarpment on one side and the coast on the other, Corrimal blocks vary a lot street to street. Some are flat, some fall sharply, and the drainage answer is different on each, so there is no single approach that suits the suburb. The other decision worth making early is whether to clear everything or keep what is good. Clearing is simpler to price and faster to build, and if the garden is mostly past it that is usually better value. Where it stops being cheaper is when you are removing things that took decades to grow, because a new yard takes years to stop looking new.
More on landscaping, retaining walls, fencing and property maintenance.
Is It Cheaper to Clear the Whole Yard and Start Again?
Sometimes, and we will say so when it is.
Clearing everything is simpler to price and faster to build, because nothing has to be worked around. If the existing garden is mostly past it, that is usually the better value.
Where it stops being the cheaper option is when you are removing things that took decades to grow. A mature tree, a screening hedge along a boundary, established soil in a bed. Those cost real money to replace with anything like the same effect, and a new yard takes years to stop looking new.
There is a middle path that works on a lot of these blocks. Clear the tired half, which is usually the structures and the dead planting, and keep the handful of things that are genuinely good. That gets you the clean start where it matters without throwing away twenty years of growth.
So the honest answer is that it depends on what you have. We walk it with you, say plainly what we think is worth keeping, and price it both ways if you want to compare. You are the one living with it.
Looking at the yard in Corrimal?
Send through a few photos of the block as it is now, and you will get a straight answer on what it involves and what it costs.
Contracts, Deposits and What NSW Asks For
Renovation work in NSW comes with consumer protections worth knowing before you sign anything. A written contract is required once the contract price is over $5,000 including GST. Work between $5,000 and $20,000 can run under a small works contract; above $20,000 it needs a full home building contract, and home building compensation cover with the certificate that goes with it. The maximum deposit anyone can ask for is 10 per cent, on a small job or a large one. Variations should be agreed in writing before the varied work happens, not reconciled at the end. None of that is unique to us, and you should expect it from whoever you use.
Quoting a Corrimal Yard
Every job gets quoted on what it actually needs. We look at the access, the condition of what is already there, the materials you want and how much of the existing work can be kept, then give you a figure before anything starts. Two jobs that look identical in photos can be very different once someone is standing in the room, so we do not publish a rate card. You get a price for your job, and it does not move once we have agreed it.
Corrimal is a straight run up the highway from Wollongong, with Fairy Meadow, Woonona, Bulli and Russell Vale all close by. Work in the northern suburbs gets batched where the timing allows, which keeps travel off the invoice on a yard that runs over a couple of weeks. A first look on an established block means digging at the base of any old retaining and walking the whole garden with you, because what stays and what goes is the decision the rest of the job hangs on.
Plumbing and electrical work is carried out by licensed partners, not in-house.
Corrimal Landscaping Questions
Can you landscape around a mature tree?+
Usually, and it is often worth it. What it means in practice is working around the root zone rather than through it, which rules out digging footings close to the trunk and sometimes changes where a wall or a paved area can go. Compacting the ground over roots is the other thing to avoid, so machine access gets planned around it. We will tell you honestly at the quote whether the tree can stay and what designing around it costs you in usable space, so it is a decision rather than an assumption.
My old sleeper retaining wall is leaning. Can it be repaired?+
Sometimes, more often not. Timber sleeper walls from the eighties and nineties fail at the posts, below ground, where you cannot see it. If the posts have gone there is nothing to repair and patching the visible part just hides it. We dig at the base to see what the posts are doing before giving you an answer, because a wall that is replaced properly lasts decades and a wall that is patched buys a year or two and then takes the new garden down with it.
How do I get a quote for landscaping in Corrimal?+
Book a time for us to walk the yard, because on an established block most of the decisions are about what stays and what goes, and that needs a conversation on site rather than over the phone. If there is anything you definitely want kept, say so at the start rather than after the design, because it changes where walls, paths and machine access can go. You get an itemised written quote with the exclusions listed. Call 0413 147 335.
Which trades does a Corrimal landscaping job need?+
Demolition and removal, retaining, drainage, fencing, paving or concreting, turf and planting. We do the retaining, fencing, structures and steelwork ourselves, which on a rework is the bulk of the job, and bring in the rest as needed. One person running it rather than several quotes to line up and sequence yourself around a tree that has to stay and a wall that has to come out first. It also means the new levels start from a wall we built rather than one we inherited and hoped about.
While we are in Corrimal, we also take on home renovations, handyman work and welding. Close by, there is landscaping in Figtree.
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