I'm thinking about buying a house that's on a relatively steep slope. I'd like to make the front yard less steep by building up earth held in place by a retaining wall. Is that just crazy or is it feasible, especially with earth/sand/cement bags?
>>916796
Retaining wall are best with poured concrete or stone/block/brick. Although, because they are ultra cheap, my state's road crews use wire fencing, gravel, and I-beams.
You really should use solid blocks/stones though.
>>916801
so if done properly that could create a less steep slope that could be like a front yard?
It is going to be $$$$$$
Often. You can find the cost of medium sized retaining wall coming close to and exceeding the cost of the house.
>>916804
Yes. The steeper the slope the more expensive it will be I think. Curving the slope with a normal dirt embankment will also work and be the cheapest solution. An embankment like pictured doesn't need a retaining wall.
![retaining-wall-deadman[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/hseCJEG.jpg "retaining-wall-deadman[1].jpg")
>>916796
Unless you're innawoods you usually need permits to do a retaining wall higher than just a few feet. If you don't know what you're doing your wall will fall down within a few years.
Sometimes there are loopholes, though. I ended up getting around city enforcement by making a series of three shorter walls and basically created a terrace. Bonus, since the walls were short I could get away with just using dirt cheap railroad ties.
They make locking bricks designed for short DIY walls as well but they were 4-6x more expensive.
OP here, maybe I should clarify. I don't mean build a stone wall holding up a flat front lawn, I'm talking about just laying down dirt to make downward slope of the front yard running away from the house less steep. This is for function, not form.
>>916833
this is what I'm trying to verbalize (forgive my MS paint skills). Just build up the natural steepness with earth to make it more like a front lawn. It's off the main roads so I don't care so much about appearance, just cost and effectiveness. If this would all just wash away then I guess I'd need a wall, and I know that's outside the budget.
>>916843
That won't work without a wall.
>>916865
Maybe get some mexicans to build it for free?
Could I please hijack this thread to discuss what these things are?
I mean, what the fuck are these? What are their pros and cons? How long does it take for the wires to rust to shit?
Is there a way to improve it? Plastic? Nylon?
>>917381
gabions- wire lasts longer than your lifespan and are easily repaired. /diy/ doesnt like them because they are too practical and low cost. they would rather build rape dungeons out of buried shipping containers. its the same way they hate trailer homes and would rather spend 3x as much on a "tiny home" (cuck shed)
>>917381
They're called gabions.
Their pros are they are porous and let water through, so they don't have to withstand hydraulic pressure. Also, when topped with soil the root systems of plants will help stabilize them after the wire rusts away. They are more flexible than concrete blocks and will deform as a whole instead of coming apart from each other like blocks would.
Their cons are they can be labor intensive to set up and have a more limited life span compared to concrete blocks.
Life span of the wire is 25 to 50 years depending on the wire and thickness of the galvanizing. Made with stainless wire the lifespan is indefinite.
>>917395
HOLY MACARONI IT'S BEAUTIFUL.
much practical
so cost effective
>>917396
0_0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7kW8ZSPGlNg
I like lock blocks,
If you can get them for below retail and know someone with a crane, boomtruck or excavator.
Otherwise it can get pricey fast.
>>917397
>>917396
>>917395
>>917381
These are fucking worthless if they are not stainless steel. State road built a big wall of that here. Some one came along with bolt cutters and sliced along the bottom. The entire roadway collapsed on that side. The worst ones I've seen are the shitty chicken wire ones. Those lasted about 5 years.
And yes, they do rust to shit in about 20 years. I can't fathom why people don't use stainless steel for this shit. Everyone I've ever seen has been galvanized steel. I mean what the fuck is the point if it isn't SS?
It is just a project for short-sighted contractors and cheap customers. If you need to save up serious money for something more permanent I guess using these for temp would be okay.
>>916796
Assuming that you live in a region that requires building permits, you will have a very difficult time getting a permit.
Get an engineer involved. A structural engineer would be the cheapest route, but they will put a bunch of 'CYA' assumptions in their contract. Then when the wall fails, the structural engineer will say it is your fault, he designed a wall for these assumptions.
A geotechnical engineer will actually look at your site and design the wall for the soil conditions that exist on site.
>>917412
>State road built a big wall of that here. Some one came along with bolt cutters and sliced along the bottom.
What state? Do you know the highway number? I want to look into this a little more, not that I do not believe you, good sir.
>>917517
Fuck no, because it is right near my house and I don't want 10,000 pizzas from you faggots. It wasn't in the news (not that I really checked) and I only know about it because I live near it.
Structural Engineer here.
Do any of you cucks actually know how to run the calcs for this, or are you just spouting bullshit about what you think is best?
Gabion v.s. RC vs. Gravity and so on will be determined by height to thickness ratios, cost and soil & water conditions.
OP. Get someone to do the calcs for you if you're not up for learning how to use active/passive pressure coefficients and working out the permissible bearing stress of the ground.
>>917538
>Fuck no, because it is right near my house
We would not have known that if you had not told us.
I am bored today. I am going to scour the internet and find a relevant news article. Then I am going to post your address.
>>917549
I do, but I am a licensed professional engineer.
Go fuck off, EIT.
>>917388
house vs trailer are entirely different constructions
>>917570
>Non-SI units not approved for use with the SI
Fuck off yourself
I love the look of strength and the lifespan.
>>917570
>licensed professional engineer
I don't know that that is, but ok. Good for you
If you're not recognised by this, your 'licence' is worth as much as your degree and currency. Fuck all.
>EIT
I don't even know what that means.
Engineer in Training? Engineers are forever in training you fucking homosexual.
Also
>lbf/ft^3
literally retarded.
>>916796
op please make you own gabions with chicken wire and recycled concrete. or use hescos. post pics to /diy/ so we can have a laff
>>918411
>loving the look of a n00b cobblestone house from Minecraft
>>918430
I bet you can use Hescos to line the sides of a shipping container so you can bury it underground.
>>918424
Not the guy you're replying to, but if you don't even know what a PE and EIT are and what weight each carries, your opinion is literally worthless in this debate.
Not to mention the professional body you posted probably has several tiers of membership ranging from junior or student to fellow or council member. I'm not a structural engineer so I've never looked into that one, but I am at least a mid level member in 4 other professional bodies and being recognized as a junior member carries no weight in the fields other than internship consideration.
>With all of that said, I highly doubt the guy you replied to is a PE, showing you a page of from a FE reference material instead of a censored PE stamp does not bode well.
>>916801
w-sections. not i-beams.
>>918424
>chartered engineer
go fuck yourself.
What is retarded about a weight divided by a volume? It is a pressure. Fundamentally identical to a pascal.
I hope your queen likes her facial from Emperor Trump.
>>918627
>It is a pressure
Is it's pressure.
\Delta P=\rho g(\Delta h)\,
\Delta P is the hydrostatic pressure (given in pascals in the SI system), or the difference in pressure at two points within a fluid column, due to the weight of the fluid;
ρ is the fluid density (in kilograms per cubic meter in the SI system);
g is acceleration due to gravity (normally using the sea level acceleration due to Earth's gravity, in SI in metres per second squared);
\Delta h is the height of fluid above the point of measurement, or the difference in elevation between the two points within the fluid column.
Key word here is fluid.
>>918627
>What is retarded about a weight divided by a volume? It is a pressure. Fundamentally identical to a pascal.
>>917538
So, you did it, right ?
>>918770
>weight divided by a volume
>is a pressure
no
>>917549
You need a degree to create something that mankind has been creating for millennia in the poorest and most illiterate of societies?
>>918885
You do in a society that's invented a concept called "negligence": the collective agreement that "winging it" is no-longer acceptable.
>>918885
If you don't want to over or under engineer it, yes.
We only see the shit that is still standing because it was over engineered or on the mark. If it was under engineered shit fell over.
http://weburbanist.com/2014/04/16/ancient-engineering-fail-12-historic-structural-disasters/
You could half ass it without any calculations, but since you're half-assing it, you also won't over engineer it. You'll try to cut costs and save material. Then your house/property falls off the hill into the road and kills some people and you're out all of the money you ever made in your life and 4chan laughs at you.
>>918889
His house is already on stable ground.
His slope is not close to any road or public byway.
So then what?
>>918465
And then lower a precast concrete slab over the top.
>>918892
>I'm thinking about buying a house that's on a relatively steep slope.
His house is already on stable ground.
steep enough he already feels the need to stabilize the hill.
His slope is not close to any road or public byway.
>having a house not close to a road
Okay, anon.
>But anon, the state approved the house building.
Yeah, but a lot of the time they don't think of really obvious shit or make you do things you should.
>Let's build these houses under this mountain
>It's fine for decades.
>engineers say it's not going to stable during a heavy rain, it's apparent it doesn't have adequate drainage
>One heavy rain.
>Fwoomp.
>>918465
but will it still be able to fit 2 tons of imitation crabmeat
>>918904
Only if you take out the sound dampening eggcrate foam
>>918913
luckily i've just installed two extra shipping containers for extra storage so I don't even need to remove the sound insulation.
http://www.buschgeotech.com/oops.html
>>917396
Sorry but god damn that is only ugly house, both the walls and the roof look horrible
>>917570
Using someone's feet to measure shit, great.
I assumed that american universities would use SI units...
>>918885
Most people literally have no concept of what active pressure, stresses, bearing pressures, and water pressure even ARE, let alone their magnitudes.
>oh its only a little water
bam, catastrophic shear failure of your soil.
>>918889
This guy gets it.
Even I, as a practising engineer sometimes overcompensate in areas that didn't need to be, and undercompensate in areas that needed to be designed. Luckily I always catch these early on and redesign where appropriate, but earthworks are notoriously tricky to engineer properly.
We have a saying, 'You always pay for the site investigation' when talking to clients.
This basically says:
1. Pay for the fucking ground investigation - boreholes, pits, sampling, and get a well understood, well engineered solution
OR
2. Don't pay for it, and we will stick so much fucking concrete and rebar in the ground that satan himself will have a piled wall going through his office.
All because superficial deposits are notoriously tricky.
>>920084
>oh its only a little water
Oh god damn. I have to fight tooth and nail with my family with shit like this. They don't want to dig a proper foundation. They want to build over a run off area where rainwater gushes when it storms. They have no concept at all of snow load and we live in a place where we can get 4 feet of snow fall on freak winters.
I had to install a 20-bags-of-cement piling under a fucking door because the building they made was over a rain water run off area. They didn't have center foundation (because a 16' span is fine if you use two 2x6 boards to make it across.)
#%*#%#$&
>>916843
My parents used Aizoaceae to hold thier wall up. First fill up old metal drums with earth. Make a nigger wall out of that, then let the Aizoaceae grow over that to hold it all together.
![safe_image[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/L5fGJIN.jpg "safe_image[1].jpg")
>Ameritards in charge of piling dirt up.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/oregondot/23584050709/in/dateposted/
>>919021
American universities are more concerned with making money than actually teaching shit.
Besides, units of measurement are something you should be learning at an early age.
>>920154
>implying mudslides don't happen in yurop
>>921061
They do, it's a huge problem currently and even Germany is starting to get tighter border control because of them.
>>921192
kek
>>921192
Top kek
>>916796
Quikrete endorsed and has a product for making walls out of bags there plain paper and allow water penetration
http://www.quikrete.com/Media/case-studies/RipRapRetainingWallsforRoadWidening.pdf
>>921192
>>916796
I have a house built into the side of a hill. I absolutely hate it. Keep shopping OP.
You can get special bags you can pile up then cut small holes in for cutting and small plants
>>917570
Why are you showing off your text book?
I have a text book in mechanical engineering, fluid dynamics and thermodynamics and I am nothing of the damn sort.
>>921058
Same thing with britfag universities. Particularly the tutors. If they utilize 2 pages out of their own text book they "highly recommend purchasing this for easy reference" and try to convince the students that they won't pass their 30 minute long but critically marked examination without it.
>>916865
Could probably work with some decent turf. Judging by the pic he's not on that much of a grade.
>>918962
Idk, they used that on a mountain near me (Mt. Lemmon on the outskirts of Tucson) and I have never seen any give of any kind on any of my yearly/bi-yearly trips.
And I'm aspie enough to pay attention to dumb shit like that (structural defects/feats).
>>922411
Anecdotal evidence doesn't matter though.
>>921522
Not worth it at all? Not OP, but I always thought with a half-decent original foundation you could really make something decent out of it given time and work... granted it's not on like a 70 degree incline.
Although, I'm from a place where we don't really know about such things. Not like others.
Is it just that you're tired of it, or is it because it's a legitimately unavoidable problem/danger?
>>920151
Your parents sound stupid.
