Garden - car inspection pit idea

I've done next to nowt with my front garden, mainly because I can't decide what I want to do with it. I have a few ideas. One plan is to move the pond from the back garden to the front. Certainly I also want to add a bit more 'structure' because I'm not generally a fan of flat gardens (awkward when you choose to buy a house in one of the flattest parts of the country).

I also want to tackle more of my own car maintenance, and I don't trust jacks or axle stands enough to crawl under a tonne and a half of steel.

So, I had an idea. I could so a sort of sunken pebbled area in a nice sweeping curve from the end of my drive, round onto the lawn. Nice sand stone walls to hold all the surround garden out, and lots of nice planting and the pond around it. 99% of the time it would just look like a garden. Somewhere nice to sit out. But on the rare occasions when I want to be under the car, I could simply drive it over the sunken pebble bit, and I'd then have enough room to crawl underneath.

Any thoughts?

Excuse my rubbish drawing skills, but this is something roughly like what I had in mind.



The big block of red on the right is my very bad approximation of my drive. The house is just off the bottom end of my pic and the main street just off the top of the pic. All the white area would be planted up with shrubs and flowers, and the small pond would be shallow under the window, and deeper in the corner for the fish. None of the pic is to scale. The yellow bit would come down gradually getting deeper as you come off the drive, while the earth excavated to make that happen would be used, along with some sandstone rocks I have, to raise the ground gradually, so that the net effect would be the car drives up, straddling that area, while the ground underneath gets lower. 99% of the time, it would simply be our area among the garden plants to sit and enjoy it, so it wouldn't look like an inspection pit at all. I'd presumably have to do something to ensure the sides don't simply fall away if I put the car on it, but I guess that would be easy enough.

 

It wont need a lid, it will be no deeper than about 18 inches. That's plenty enough to slide under the car for such mundane tasks as whipping the oil filter off or getting to the drain plug. Its about the clearance that I'd get if I put it on them rather dodgy steel ramps that someone tried to ban a few years ago (because cars were rolling off them and squashing people).

I also wouldn't worry about drainage. The front garden drains very well as it is, and on days of higher than usual rainfall, it wont matter if it turns into a big puddle for a few hours. In fact it would probably do the neighbourhood a favour, as water collecting there wouldn't be racing off to overwhelm the drains.

You're right about catching anything that spills off. Brake juice and oil being the biggest risk ones, as I can do the coolant without lifting the car, just working under the bonnet, and its easy to catch because you just disconnect the top hose first, get as much as you can out that way, then do the bottom hose. I never bother with a full flush because if you keep on top of coolant changes, you don't need to.

Getting in and out is easy. I'd just plan for a suitable gap between the front of the car and the end of the 'pit'.

Supporting the sides is the biggy. That will take some thought. If I go for this plan, I'll probably actually build the walls with rocks and mortar, and kid of slop them if you know what I mean.

 

Is that 'pebbled area' going to be permeable construction? If not it would appear you'd require planning permission.

 

A pebble floor would indeed be permeable.

 

Its lower than my garden wall, which people could also fall off, but one must ask, what were they doing on it in the first place?

But I might sack the idea anyway. Thinking some more, it does seem like a lot of effort for something that would get very little use. More thinking to do I reckon.

 

I asked because a "pebbled floor" (as shown on the design) normally looks like this, unlike a pebble bed which would be a (permeable) bed of pebbles.

 

Unless your working on cars every week it seems like a lot of work and potential grief to get right. And as already stated if someone does injur themselves then you will get taken to the cleaners. I think you would be better off with a couple of decent trolley jacks and stands.

Rusty

 

Sorry, my mistake. To me, pebble floor means literally pebbles spread over the floor. I guess I meant pebble bed.

 

I think it's a great idea...should the car drop on you.... just fill the hole in and stick a pot of flowers on top....job done.