Auckland landscape construction case studies

A Roman-style concrete pool with failing decks either side, brought back without demolition: shell stripped to bare concrete and retiled, under a curved Vitex deck on new foundations.

A 3.2 m stainless pool carried in by hand onto a slab built to deck height, with the Kwila deck finished before it arrived. Twenty-five metres of fence rebuilt.

A concrete fireplace in the middle of the yard, and 850 mm of access. The digger came through the side, the soil left in 14 bins, and the pool flew over the house on a winch.

An old rotting pine deck 2 m above a steep bush slope, kept rather than replaced. The substructure was sound, so only the top changed: Silca grates and 600 × 600 porcelain.

A trampoline on a patch of grass became a plunge pool and an entertaining deck, in a front yard with volcanic rock a metre down and powerlines ruling out a crane. Five weeks.

The driveway was the low point between the street and the house, so the drainage came first. 70 m² of 20 mm Mangatangi exposed aggregate, re-graded around a new cesspit. Six weeks.

Two doors opened onto old steps down to uneven pavers, dark and unused. Now 30 m² of deck flush with the house at 700 mm, in pine, on a substructure that is not the cheap part.

Water pooled at the front door in every downpour, and the gardens had outgrown their owner. 40 m² of Longburn pebble concrete, re-graded, with raised beds you can reach from standing.

The job that started Franc Landscapes. A flooding lawn and a broken entrance became a raised hoggin courtyard, a paved entry and replanted beds, held by railway sleepers.