Jon Connell :
I currently have a 90cm high run of steps running across the back of
the house going down into the garden to a ground-level patio. The steps
are bonkers steep, been left to go to hell with weathering and the
patio looks like crap anyway. So, the wife-approved plan is a raised
patio to the height of the initial step more or less like this:

http://www.colonialstone.com/index.p...mage_full/125/

The final area of the patio is quite large at 5x8 metres so I thought
maybe concrete beams and blocks. They're pretty cheap and it would mean
the new patio was very even and I could build a very slight slope for
water to run off. I guess plan B would be filling the curtain wall with
hardcore, but I do like the idea of learning to use some new materials.

Thoughts or counter suggestions anyone?

I can't offer any solutions but I thank you for asking the question. I'm
in the same position as you, except that it's 400 mm not 900, and I
wasn't going to DIY. I had imagined it being filled with MOT or rubble,
and getting the tipper in there should be good test for the new cobbled
driveway that was put down by the same contractor.

--
Mike Barnes