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Nobody can answer that from a phone call, and anyone who does is guessing. The size matters less than what is underneath, how far the ground has to come up or down, and whether we can get a barrow through or have to carry everything. We come out, measure, and give you a written figure with the groundwork and the finish shown as separate lines so you can see what you are paying for.

Usually harder than it looks. A lot of the newer estates around here were handed over with a thin skim of topsoil sat on subsoil that has had a dumper driven over it for two years. It looks like a garden and drains like a car park. That gets dug out and rebuilt rather than dressed over.

If you want a lawn that smells like a lawn and you do not mind a mower, real turf every time, and it is cheaper up front. If the lawn is shaded, walked across daily, used by a dog or too small to bother owning a mower for, artificial usually wins. We fit both and we will tell you which one your garden actually suits.

Yes, composite mostly. It suits gardens where the ground steps down away from the back door, because a deck can be built out level with the house instead of digging the whole level out. Plenty of the gardens we do end up part deck and part paving.

It costs more at the start and less afterwards. No annual oiling, no splinters, no boards going green and slick by November. Timber is cheaper and can look beautiful, but it is a maintenance job you have signed up to. The frame underneath matters more than the boards either way.

Hold it rather than hide it. Sleeper beds, stone or block retaining walls, and steps between the levels. Wickersley and Thorpe Hesley throw up plenty of these, and a stepped garden nearly always ends up more usable than the flat one people picture.

It can, closer to the Don and the Rother. Where ground is slow to take water we build in permeable layers, run channel drainage and set the falls to move water off rather than hold it. It is worth mentioning at the quote stage if your garden puddles.

Yes. Excavation, muck away and disposal are on the quote as their own line. You should not be left with a heap of spoil and a promise that someone will collect it.

A patio on its own is usually a few days. A whole garden with levels, paving, deck, lawn and beds is a longer run, and access is what decides it more than size. You get a realistic number of days before we start, not a number designed to win the job.

Rotherham and the surrounding area — Wickersley, Maltby, Dinnington, Swinton, Rawmarsh, Wath, Aston, Bramley, Brinsworth, Thurcroft, Kiveton, Anston and the rest. Ring if you are just outside and we will say yes or no straight away.