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I’m building on a hill lot sloping to the east and south, with the steepest decline in the rear corner. I’ve had the back dug to ensure there will be a reasonably level back yard, and there is a forested overhang behind my just-poured foundation. The earth is full of stones, big and small. My question: May I arrange these stones along the upward slope of the “bowl”, perhaps beneath the surface, to stabilize things and maintain the level rear yard, or am I more likely to need a formal retaining wall or a steady incline to the trees?
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"Soil creep" will most likely work against you if you rely on placing stones. A retaining wall is probably the best idea to protect your investment.
Where do you live?
Dan
*The stones might help retard erosion, but shouldn't be relied upon as a retaining wall for anything more than about 2' tall unless the wall is mortared, reinforced, well-drained and engineered.
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New England.
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Whether your stones are acting as a "retaining wall" depends on the steepness of the slope. It depends on the soil type. Different types of soils have a different "angle of repose". That is, the slope that it will remain stable. Wetness will also affect that angle, as will reinforcement with deep rooted vegitation. Steeper than that, and it tends to want to come down. I like to use a slope of 2:1 maximum (or 3:1). 2 units horizontal for each unit vertical.
The potatoes you mention have a particular angle of repose. I once worked for a metal building manufacturer drafting plans for potato storage buildings that had sloped sides (about 60 degrees from horizontal) and vertical ends. Quite an odd type of building, they were quite long an were sheathed with plywood inside and had an air plenum/catwalk about 4' wide in the center that would help blow air between each potato to keep them dry. I even drew colored perspectives of the darn things to help the guy from marketing sell them in Idaho.
The engineer had designed the spacing and gauge of the girts on the end wall and assumed the sidewalls would be the same. I questioned that, and he looked further into it and found he could use lighter gauge and/or bigger spacing of the girts because there was less load on the side walls due to the slope of the walls. I would have thought it should be obvious to an engineer that this was the case, and that this was why similar buildings traditionally had sloped sides.
Sorry for being so wordy, but it depends how steep your bowl full of potatoes is...
*New England = Freeze/Thaw = Soil Creep.What part of New England? My family lives in Maine.Dan
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Connecticut.
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I'm building on a hill lot sloping to the east and south, with the steepest decline in the rear corner. I've had the back dug to ensure there will be a reasonably level back yard, and there is a forested overhang behind my just-poured foundation. The earth is full of stones, big and small. My question: May I arrange these stones along the upward slope of the "bowl", perhaps beneath the surface, to stabilize things and maintain the level rear yard, or am I more likely to need a formal retaining wall or a steady incline to the trees?