Leveling a sloping back garden

nicol

Hi,

our back garden current slopes away from the back of the house. It falls about 1.2m over 20m. What I would like to do is to get rid of the slope by filling it in. I'd then like to use the area for polytunnel and raised beds.

I'd be interested to here peoples opinion on the best way to approach this.

• Do I need an engineer to ensure that the approach that I take is going to remain stable?
• Will I need PP? Just fields to the rear so no neighbours will be impacted.

Cheers!

Horttrainer

find a good grounds work operator in your area and take it from there.
structurally you should be fine as that is not too severe a slope but be aware of "cutting and filling" technique as there may be some sinkage and settling in the soil under your polytunnel.
depending on the depth of fill put in you will need to let the soil settle somewhat before using it for polytunnel use.

Horttrainer

just saw the date on your post,ground should be well settled by now:)

Ragnar Lothbrok

Horttrainer wrote: »

just saw the date on your post,ground should be well settled by now:)

Were you looking at the joined date (June 2009)? I think the post was put up this morning.

(I'm interested in this as I have a very similar slope in my back garden and wouldn't mind having it level.)

nicol

Horttrainer wrote: »

just saw the date on your post,ground should be well settled by now:)

2009 is my boards.ie joining date. Posted this thread this morning.

lordgoat

nicol wrote: »

2009 is my boards.ie joining date. Posted this thread this morning.

Maybe give it a while longer so!

nicol

OK think that this thread got a little sidetracked thanks to confusion over dates!! So to re-iterate

I have a sloping back garden, which slopes away from the back of the house, with a drop of ~1.2m over ~20m. I want to remove the slope by filling it in. Looking for what options are available to me to achieve this. Looking to hear from others who have attempted this in the past.

Thanks

Lumen

You shouldn't level it completely, Better drainage and less impact by keeping at least 2% slope which will feel flat. That takes about 40cm out of the equation, leaving 80 cm in drops that need to be retained by walls or turned into steep banks.

If you "level" the whole thing by cut and fill then you're going to have a 40cm drop at house and another at bottom (boundary?). Think about the consequences of that for access and neighbour privacy.

You need PP for any level change over 1m which wouldn't be the case if you do cut and fill but then you're talking about potentially building a retaining wall on the boundary which needs their involvement I'd have thought.

Possibly better to have a couple of smaller drops which can be banks or sitting walls with steps running through them, away from house and boundary. Also safer and much less engineering required.

40cm walls can be done without massive engineering, dry if you don't mind a bit of batter (slope).

1 in 3 is a walkable and mowable bank, so that would lose you a couple of m of usable garden but will save a lot of money.

Good luck, please post photos and costs if you get it done as I'm planning similar.

Lumen