Replies

1. 
   hasbeen | Sep 28, 2003 11:56pm | #1

   You might get more response if you restate the question.  I don't understand what you are asking.

   Any jackass can kick down a barn, but it takes a carpenter to build one.

2. 
   BillHartmann | Sep 29, 2003 12:47am | #2

   You should probably tack this on to your other question about a retaining wall.

   You need to price it out, but I think that the cultured stone would be a little high.

   Why not go with the modular concrete retainwalling blocks?

   You need to verify these number, but I think that they work out to about $6 sq ft.

3. 
   stonefever | Sep 29, 2003 02:56am | #3

   I doubt it.  It's not the cheap way. 

   The hydraulic forces from the hill will blow out the block wall.  More so in some areas than others, depending upon temperatures and moisture behind said wall.

   You want cheap?  Again, depending on where you are, boulders taken out of the excavation can be used.  Maybe the neighboring farmer has some he needs to get rid of.  Cheap?  Learn to muscle them by hand.  Select your boulders to allow that.  Practically speaking, you'll need a backhoe or other power equipment.  Maybe Frenchy can rent you something.

   No stones available?  Railroad ties.  You'll need a semi or two of them (wholesale could be had for $5 to $10 each) as well as some high school kids in need of money.  Build it correctly or you'll rebuild it.

   Others will say some remarkable things can be done with certain shrubs and such growing on the slope over time.

   But look around your neighborhood.  The homes that have been there the longest will display the lowest cost, most accessible materials for you to use in the walls that they have built.