flattening yard

[Steve K]

Hi,

My wife and I bought a house back in 1996. We had no kids. We then had
two kids, boy and girl. Now they are 7 and 5, the boy loves baseball and
football.

But our yard is quite sloped. There is no flat spot anywhere to play.
Except for the spot designated for our future garage (we had MANY loads
of fill brought in over a two year period to just get enough of an area
to build a garage on). I know it's hard for you to picture how sloped
our yard is but it's maybe 20 or 30 degrees. ??

One area of our yard that has no trees, it's just grass, is where they
play now. But being that it is sloped it's hard to play anything, you
hit a baseball and it rolls to the bottom of the hill. No fun.

This area is about 50 yards long by 25 yards wide. Give or take a few
yards. If I stand at the bottom of the hill, the top of the hill is
maybe 6 or 7 feet above my head.

Are my wife and I nuts for even thinking about hiring a guy with a big
bulldozer to come in and take half of the high part of the hill and push
it to "fill in" the lower part of the hill, therefore flattening it out?

We're even thinking of moving. But we really love the house and area and
would rather not move.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Steve

 

[Mark]

Will it be safe? How high will the retaining walls be at each end. I'm
assuming you will need them to avoid cave-ins. Will it effect your resale
value. Any buried utilities you will dig up or cover up on either end?

 

[Steve K]

Actually, there is a bank at the low end of that yard. Overgrown with
sumac, thorns, etc., basically unusable. So I just pictured the dirt
being pushed over this bank and falling where it may. Sadly creating a
steeper bank.

Because of this, I pictured having to put some sort of fence on that end
of the new flat yard. As it will be pretty steep for a few feet. The top
end may need a retaining wall.

No utilities, but there may be an underground spring that could be
uncovered.

 

[SQLit]

Hi,

My wife and I bought a house back in 1996. We had no kids. We then had
two kids, boy and girl. Now they are 7 and 5, the boy loves baseball and
football.

But our yard is quite sloped. There is no flat spot anywhere to play.
Except for the spot designated for our future garage (we had MANY loads
of fill brought in over a two year period to just get enough of an area
to build a garage on). I know it's hard for you to picture how sloped
our yard is but it's maybe 20 or 30 degrees. ??

One area of our yard that has no trees, it's just grass, is where they
play now. But being that it is sloped it's hard to play anything, you
hit a baseball and it rolls to the bottom of the hill. No fun.

This area is about 50 yards long by 25 yards wide. Give or take a few
yards. If I stand at the bottom of the hill, the top of the hill is
maybe 6 or 7 feet above my head.

Are my wife and I nuts for even thinking about hiring a guy with a big
bulldozer to come in and take half of the high part of the hill and push
it to "fill in" the lower part of the hill, therefore flattening it out?

We're even thinking of moving. But we really love the house and area and
would rather not move.

Any thoughts?

Thanks
Steve

Better start with the local county agent or building department. Ask some
general contractors in the area.

I went to school at ISU. Some loon bought a piece of property next to the
fire department. Changed the grade and when it rained as it does in Iowa.
The fire department building and engines slid into the new lot. The
restaurant that eventually opened in the new building was called "The
Cave-Inn"

I would think fill would be cheaper. Bring in truck loads of fill and level
it out. Then wait a few months while you water it. Let it compact and settle
then bring in some more. Keep the levels of dirt down to less than 24 inches
at a time. You say 6 feet, then you sure do not need top soil.
Check around some construction sites close to home and see if they want to
get rid of the excavation materials. You might get the stuff for free and if
you strike a really good bargain they might do the in-between leveling so
that they do not have to drive farther to another site.

As a kid we had a creek that flooded and was eroding the hell out of one of
our fields. When they put in the new highway we got 100 trucks loaded with
broken concrete dumped where we wanted it and leveled for nothing. Saved the
contractor a 30 mile one way trip to dump the stuff.

 

[none]

x-no-archive: yes

You wouldn't believe some of the areas people build on in my location,
very steep. And the solution for your problem seems to be a retaining
wall. If it's only 7 feet high, you could get away with landscape ties,
but they have a limited life span of about 30 years. Concrete is a
better alternative. You also need to consider drainage at the base of
the wall to allow ground water not to build up, but to escape to the
other side of the wall. You also need to consider cost.

Here are some ideas:

http://www.themillpond.net/sitepages/pid18.php

http://www.askthebuilder.com/037_Retaining_Walls_-_Take_Your_Pick_.shtml

http://www.consumersconcrete.com/products/hard_scape/retaining_walls/retain_walls.html

I am not sure how much you pay for a yard of concrete in your area, but
up here it's about $110.00 per yard. Calculating your concrete volume,
first, is the best way to go to find what cost you are looking at. If
you want to do this yourself, you can rent concrete forms, etc.. Which
ever way you do it, it's a big job.

 

[Rudy]

Are my wife and I nuts for even thinking about hiring a guy with a big
bulldozer to come in and take half of the high part of the hill and push
it to "fill in" the lower part of the hill, therefore flattening it out?

Yes, let him go (or take him) to a park

 

[a]

Better start with the local county agent or building department. Ask some
general contractors in the area.

I went to school at ISU. Some loon bought a piece of property next to the
fire department. Changed the grade and when it rained as it does in Iowa.
The fire department building and engines slid into the new lot. The
restaurant that eventually opened in the new building was called "The
Cave-Inn"

I would think fill would be cheaper. Bring in truck loads of fill and level
it out. Then wait a few months while you water it. Let it compact and settle
then bring in some more. Keep the levels of dirt down to less than 24 inches
at a time. You say 6 feet, then you sure do not need top soil.
Check around some construction sites close to home and see if they want to
get rid of the excavation materials. You might get the stuff for free and if
you strike a really good bargain they might do the in-between leveling so
that they do not have to drive farther to another site.

As a kid we had a creek that flooded and was eroding the hell out of one of
our fields. When they put in the new highway we got 100 trucks loaded with
broken concrete dumped where we wanted it and leveled for nothing. Saved the
contractor a 30 mile one way trip to dump the stuff.

You know what that say about "location, location, location"..

I had an estimate for rock for an erosion problem 2-5 ton loads with
leveling was $2000 US... I couldn't imagine how much you saved...

 

[Smurof Yid]

You will want to hire an engineer. The land is sloped for a reason. The rains over centuries "sculpt" the land as the dunoff heads for the lowet point, usually a stream or river. Can it be done? Of course. Anything can be done. But will it need a drain pipe, or culvert? Clearstone or Class A crush? Yjere are many questions to be answere, this could be as sinple as some loads of fill, and a tractor equipped with a landplane, OR as complicated asInvestigations by The Bepartment of lands or The Environment boys. Not to mention lawsuits should any neighboring properties be affected by your admirable comittment to baseball practice. Aren't there any parks or ballfields near you? You said it was a nice area. Just wondering?