Garden landscaping question
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Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
This is the correct answer to any situation involving doing stuff.
Randomnerd
Bimbleur
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Get the advice of an engineer. Cutting back five feet could add at least two feet to your retaining height, and a five foot retainer is not usual for a domestic setting. You may require additional cantilevers, shoring or support. Have you considered terracing the site? Steps up to another useful level. A three foot high wall retaining needs plenty of drainage behind, and the slope above shouldn't be more than 30 degrees.
Levo-Lon
Guru
You tend to find the top soil isn't that deep ,so you have a very hard sub base or nice stable clay that wont cave in..
Remove the soil in layers to establish what the ground is like.
You may need support posts for the wall or most likely a 2 or 3 skin con block and brick wall.
Or you use sleepers ..the cheapest and often the better option ..
A mini digger would be helpfull.
A few pics of the project would help Paul
Remove the soil in layers to establish what the ground is like.
You may need support posts for the wall or most likely a 2 or 3 skin con block and brick wall.
Or you use sleepers ..the cheapest and often the better option ..
A mini digger would be helpfull.
A few pics of the project would help Paul
Andy_R
Hard of hearing..I said Herd of Herring..oh FFS..
- Location
- County Durham
Railway sleepers are your friend.
We had a garden that sloped down about 7 feet in 30. Using sleepers to create terraces we soon made it manageable, but do make sure the sleepers are solid when you get them.
"Good" railway sleepers will ooze oil and diesel on a hot day, and are pretty much indestuctible. Just don't sit on them in your pale coloured summer dress. (this includes blokes too - you'll end up looking like a sooty shearwater)
"Bad" railway sleepers will rot at the ends and provide housing, nursery care, and primary education for wood louse, mice, rats, mushrooms.
We had a garden that sloped down about 7 feet in 30. Using sleepers to create terraces we soon made it manageable, but do make sure the sleepers are solid when you get them.
"Good" railway sleepers will ooze oil and diesel on a hot day, and are pretty much indestuctible. Just don't sit on them in your pale coloured summer dress. (this includes blokes too - you'll end up looking like a sooty shearwater)
"Bad" railway sleepers will rot at the ends and provide housing, nursery care, and primary education for wood louse, mice, rats, mushrooms.
Andy_R
Hard of hearing..I said Herd of Herring..oh FFS..
- Location
- County Durham
And use the biggest bolts you can to fix them together. I used 3/4 inch thick by 9 inch long coach screws in pre drilled holes - 4 at every junction. These puppies will only move when the wood rots out. At this point, it's not gardening, it's engineering.
U
User6179
Guest
If your digging out 5 metre wide by about 2 metres deep you could be talking 20 tons of earth(200ish wheelbarrows full) which will fill 2 large skips
The wall, should be engineers drawings somewhere on tinternet that will show you the width needed for the height it is retaining, start of wider then stepping in as you get higher, back of wall cover in bituman and back fill with chips, drainage holes built into wall.
The wall, should be engineers drawings somewhere on tinternet that will show you the width needed for the height it is retaining, start of wider then stepping in as you get higher, back of wall cover in bituman and back fill with chips, drainage holes built into wall.
U
User6179
Guest
[QUOTE 4881616, member: 9609"]I seen an unusual tactic in a project near me - 4" round wooden fenceposts sied by side then back filled with gravel. holding maybe 4 foot in depth of ground behind it. (may be 20 metres wide) they reckon it should be good for 50 years. Certainly a cheap and fast solution.[/QUOTE]
Local swing park had this for small retaing walls and sleepers for higher parts, lasted 20 years before some of it rotted, most of it was still good when they tore it down a few years back.
Local swing park had this for small retaing walls and sleepers for higher parts, lasted 20 years before some of it rotted, most of it was still good when they tore it down a few years back.
Pro Tour Punditry
Guru
All this for 5-6 feet of patio?
Bollocks to it.
Bollocks to it.
Randomnerd
Bimbleur
- Location
- North Yorkshire
Not really, unless you want to eat your barbecue burger next to a carcinogenic wall. Old, creosoted railway sleepers are now banned for landscape projects.
Levo-Lon
Guru
Mrs M
Guru
- Location
- Aberdeenshire
What about raised decking instead?
We had that done as our garden slopes. Provided a nice wee sun trap as it's higher than the patio.
We had that done as our garden slopes. Provided a nice wee sun trap as it's higher than the patio.
Levo-Lon
Guru
Its a patio that slopes away from the house..
Raising isn't usually an option.
You can of course raise the new area with steps
