Shed on a steep slope project - retaining wall question

[steve66]

Same breather membrane they use on timber frame houses, can pick up off
eBay

 

[Mandrake]

OK well thanks for all the ideas some really helpful stuff here. I'm 95% sure I'm going to go with a low retaining wall made from gravel boards. Minimal space needed, strengthens the potentially dodgy existing wall, cheap materials, comparatively easy to install, and the look of it doesn't matter as hidden.

Gabions a close second, but the additional space, plus the fact I'd have to buy and shift about 3 tons of stone to fill it, up 2 sets of steps and a steep garden (about 5m height differential from the drive to the shed site) makes it less appealing. I'll already be shifting many tons of materials for the project so a solution that cuts this down a little is welcome.

Thanks to all for the help!

 

[MikeJhn]

Next you have to add pictures of how you get on.

 

[spiritburner]

Putting this shed up is seeming to be an enormous task when it doesnt need to be. why cant you just sink posts in to the slope and use beams out from there to posts on the lawn? , ok so it will require a step up into the shed but does that matter? In what way would it be too high??

What is the height difference over the length of the proposed shed. Are we talking half a meter at one end or less? its difficult to tell from the photos ***

Its going to cost a lot to build a retaining wall properly which would involve excavation concrete steel reinforced footings, blocks backfilled with concrete and rendered over.

In the scheme of things does it really matter if you lose a bit of lawn space? Why not move the shed over?

Youll end up more in the shed than playing in the grass, it never seems to stop raining in the uk.

Seriously though does it really matter ? Once you start being a carpenter you wont have time to be a gardener.....


***

 

[Mandrake]

ok so it will require a step up into the shed but does that matter? In what way would it be too high??

Doing this the shed windows would be over 3m above ground floor level. This doesn’t work for me for reasons outlined in the above posts.

What is the height difference over the length of the proposed shed. Are we talking half a meter at one end or less?

90cm from the back to the front

Its going to cost a lot to build a retaining wall properly which would involve excavation concrete steel reinforced footings, blocks backfilled with concrete and rendered over.

A number of better solutions than this have been discussed above.

In the scheme of things does it really matter if you lose a bit of lawn space? Why not move the shed over?

Youll end up more in the shed than playing in the grass, it never seems to stop raining in the uk.

Yeah it’s a smallish garden and I have kids so it matters to me. Don’t really know what you mean by move the shed over but the spot I’m using is the only viable place to put the shed.

Seriously though does it really matter?

Well if you want to get existential about it sure, does anything really matter? Having a shed that fits into the garden well and maximises the space matters to me, that’s why I’m here.

 

[Jaydee]

I went through all the thought processes as you when I was planning a retaining wall in my back garden. I was desperately trying not to build a proper wall. I looked a gabion cages, interlocking blocks, all sorts of stuff. In the end I built a proper concrete block wall. It’s was a lot easier than I imagined. I dough a trench about 500mm deep. Filled it with concrete, and while it was still wet set the first row of hollow blocks on it. I then pushed in the rebar through the hollow blocks into the concrete, with enough sticking out to the height of the finished wall. When this was set I then proceeded to lay the rest of the courses. Yes you have to thread them over the rebar but at 900mm that’s not too difficult. Once the wall was built you need to fill in the hollow blocks with concrete i made a funnel for this. Then I laid some pea shingle at the back of it, ran a land drainage pipe on top of the pea shingle then covered the pipe with more shingle insuring a proper fall to its final drain point. It sounds a lot of work but spaced out over time it’s not so hard. It’s not too expensive. And a lot cheaper than gabion cages. It will hold back both side of your garden and you can get on with the fun bit of getting you shed built and working in it.
good luck with it.

 

[pauljhaigh58]

My thoughts are reducing the back and move to frontier screw piles use concrete lintels as joists then build shed on top then use gravel boards to retain bank behind and fill with concrete
Paul