Hi,

My mother has a garden which has a fairly substantial slope (as above)
and is thinking of levelling it, and putting a supporting drystone
wall at the bottom (next to the drive). She is concerned about
drainage and cost.

I imagined that the best thing to do would be to clear back the soil,
fill it in with rubble and then put a holey tarp down and relay the
soil?

We have no idea whether this would be the right approach or what sort
of cost we should expect. We would be very grateful for any input at
all.

Kind regards,

Richard

"rbarbs" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

My mother has a garden which has a fairly substantial slope (as above)
and is thinking of levelling it, and putting a supporting drystone
wall at the bottom (next to the drive). She is concerned about
drainage and cost.

I imagined that the best thing to do would be to clear back the soil,
fill it in with rubble and then put a holey tarp down and relay the
soil?

We have no idea whether this would be the right approach or what sort
of cost we should expect. We would be very grateful for any input at
all.

Kind regards, Richard

Have a look at this : http://www.pavingexpert.com/featur04.htm
Jenny

On Jul 29, 12:03 pm, "JennyC" wrote:
"rbarbs" wrote in message

ups.com...





Hi,

My mother has a garden which has a fairly substantial slope (as above)
and is thinking of levelling it, and putting a supporting drystone
wall at the bottom (next to the drive). She is concerned about
drainage and cost.

I imagined that the best thing to do would be to clear back the soil,
fill it in with rubble and then put a holey tarp down and relay the
soil?

We have no idea whether this would be the right approach or what sort
of cost we should expect. We would be very grateful for any input at
all.

Kind regards, Richard

Have a look at this :http://www.pavingexpert.com/featur04.htm
Jenny- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That site will also show you about drainage etc too. Your
imagination isn't the way I'd do it.

"rbarbs" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

My mother has a garden which has a fairly substantial slope (as above)
and is thinking of levelling it, and putting a supporting drystone
wall at the bottom (next to the drive). She is concerned about
drainage and cost.

I'd be concerned about stability. It wasn't clear how high exactly the
retaining wall would be but high retaining walls are not something you can
just throw up. It's going to need careful design to ensure the backfill
doesn't push the wall over. Try yellow pages for landscape engineer or
landscape architect. See if you can get one to do a free site visit and give
you a quote..

You would also need something on top of the wall to prevent people falling
onto the driveway from the lawn. Railings or similar. Those alone won't be
particularly cheap.

Any fence or wall more than 6ft tall needs planning permission.

"CWatters" wrote in message
...

You would also need something on top of the wall to prevent people falling
onto the driveway from the lawn. Railings or similar. Those alone won't be
particularly cheap.

Any fence or wall more than 6ft tall needs planning permission.


Just to be clear...there is a possible trap to avoid...

Say you build a wall 5'6" tall so it doesn't need planning permission.
Then building control tell you you need railings on top.
The railings make it over 6' tall.
So you now need planning permission, which is refused and you have to take
the whole lot down.


Now I don't think Building Control approval is required but best check and
be aware of the potential for traps like this.

rbarbs wrote:
My mother has a garden which has a fairly substantial slope (as above)
and is thinking of levelling it, and putting a supporting drystone
wall at the bottom (next to the drive). She is concerned about
drainage and cost.

I imagined that the best thing to do would be to clear back the soil,
fill it in with rubble and then put a holey tarp down and relay the
soil?

3 metres drop over 25 metres?
That is a massive amount to fill, probably 50 tonnes of hardcore will be
needed to fill it. For instance, I cleared a raised flowerbed last week,
mainly rubble under 3" of soil. It was under 6 metresx 2 metres x
45cm.So roughly, under 6 square metres (the skip size was 6 yds, and was
almost full) The waste weighed around 4 tonnes.

You will need something substantial at the end to stop it slipping -
caged stones/rocks would be good (gabions), then infill with rubble.It
will need to be compacted well too, so no great big lumps of masonry can
be chucked in.

This is a major undertaking, which would be very difficult to undertake
as a DIY job, just because of the amount of infill and support required.
Alan.

--
To reply by e-mail, change the ' + ' to 'plus'.

CWatters wrote:

Just to be clear...there is a possible trap to avoid...

Say you build a wall 5'6" tall so it doesn't need planning permission.
Then building control tell you you need railings on top.
The railings make it over 6' tall.
So you now need planning permission, which is refused and you have to take
the whole lot down.

Now I don't think Building Control approval is required but best check and
be aware of the potential for traps like this.

This is not Spot The Civil Engineer, is it? :-)

Regards

--
Alan Johnson, Geotr@ns
www.geotrans-online.de
German-English, Geosciences/Technical
http://geotransblog.blogspot.com/
Terminus Est

"rbarbs" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

My mother has a garden which has a fairly substantial slope (as above)
and is thinking of levelling it, and putting a supporting drystone
wall at the bottom (next to the drive). She is concerned about
drainage and cost.

I imagined that the best thing to do would be to clear back the soil,
fill it in with rubble and then put a holey tarp down and relay the
soil?

We have no idea whether this would be the right approach or what sort
of cost we should expect. We would be very grateful for any input at
all.

I think I would do it at several levels, say one metre drop for each level
with steps up at each one, how long each one would be, will depend upon the
overall shape of the plot.

"Alan Johnson" wrote in message
...
CWatters wrote:

Just to be clear...there is a possible trap to avoid...

Say you build a wall 5'6" tall so it doesn't need planning permission.
Then building control tell you you need railings on top.
The railings make it over 6' tall.
So you now need planning permission, which is refused and you have to
take
the whole lot down.

Now I don't think Building Control approval is required but best check
and
be aware of the potential for traps like this.

This is not Spot The Civil Engineer, is it? :-)

Me a Civil Engineer? No, just a self builder.

CWatters writes

"Alan Johnson" wrote in message
...
CWatters wrote:

Just to be clear...there is a possible trap to avoid...

Say you build a wall 5'6" tall so it doesn't need planning permission.
Then building control tell you you need railings on top.
The railings make it over 6' tall.
So you now need planning permission, which is refused and you have to
take
the whole lot down.

Now I don't think Building Control approval is required but best check
and
be aware of the potential for traps like this.

This is not Spot The Civil Engineer, is it? :-)

Me a Civil Engineer? No, just a self builder.

How can you tell the difference between a Civil Engineer and a
Mechanical Engineer?










Mechanical Engineers build weapons, Civil Engineers build targets

--
Kay

"rbarbs" wrote in message
ups.com...
Hi,

My mother has a garden which has a fairly substantial slope (as above)
and is thinking of levelling it, and putting a supporting drystone
wall at the bottom (next to the drive). She is concerned about
drainage and cost.

I imagined that the best thing to do would be to clear back the soil,
fill it in with rubble and then put a holey tarp down and relay the
soil?

We have no idea whether this would be the right approach or what sort
of cost we should expect. We would be very grateful for any input at
all.

Kind regards,

Richard

A 3M retaining wall requires someone who knows what they are doing to work
out how thick it needs to be etc, you can build it yourself but do not guess
at its design. It could be done in dry stone (I have an 8' drystone
retaining wall) but the correct slope for the wall needs to be calculated.

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwall
http://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cultivars

On Jul 31, 10:04 am, "Charlie Pridham"
wrote:
"rbarbs" wrote in message

ups.com...



Hi,

My mother has a garden which has a fairly substantial slope (as above)
and is thinking of levelling it, and putting a supporting drystone
wall at the bottom (next to the drive). She is concerned about
drainage and cost.

I imagined that the best thing to do would be to clear back the soil,
fill it in with rubble and then put a holey tarp down and relay the
soil?

We have no idea whether this would be the right approach or what sort
of cost we should expect. We would be very grateful for any input at
all.

Kind regards,

Richard

A 3M retaining wall requires someone who knows what they are doing to work
out how thick it needs to be etc, you can build it yourself but do not guess
at its design. It could be done in dry stone (I have an 8' drystone
retaining wall) but the correct slope for the wall needs to be calculated.

--
Charlie, Gardening in Cornwallhttp://www.roselandhouse.co.uk
Holders of National collections of Clematis viticella
and Lapageria rosea cultivars- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Thanks everyone, lots of food for thought and websites to check -
thanks for all your help