Building on sloped land

[Jamesnlee]

Hello, I'm new to this site and sorry if this has been discussed already. I'm Wanting to build a 24x32 garage but it is on a severely sloped site. The site probably slopes to 3.5-4 feet starting at about 4feet in to the 32 planned length. See pic attached. 1st step of course is to demo the site, get stumps out etc. I want to build the land up to the level of the boat. So she can pull right in.

So, my question for you all would be what would be a manageable leveling process for me to do myself. I've gotten estimates and they range anywhere from 9-25k just for the land leveling/prep.

My plan is to build stem walls around the perimeter on footers, reinforce with rebar, fill cores, etc. Then back fill "hole" with compacted lifts etc.?

Would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks

 

[JamesW84]

I know it can be confusing, but you should post this in the general garage discussion section. Ask a moderator to move it for you. You'll get more eyeballs there.

Back of the envelope, it looks like you'd need around 57 yards of fill just for the footprint (subtract what would be removed for footers and walls)
https://www.soildirect.com/calculator/cubic-yard-calculator

Make sure it is compacted well in no more than 12" lifts, at least that's what an engineer told me.

I wonder if they could just push the driveway (if unpaved) back and make the driveway and building site all level that way. We need to see more pics of the whole site.

Gravel is expensive. It was about $500 for 23 tons delivered. I'd only use gravel for the top 4-6" of fill if it were me; I did 5" on mine.

 

[jives]

So, my question for you all would be what would be a manageable leveling process for me to do myself. I've gotten estimates and they range anywhere from 9-25k just for the land leveling/prep.

My plan is to build stem walls around the perimeter on footers, reinforce with rebar, fill cores, etc. Then back fill "hole" with compacted lifts etc.?

Those stem walls may likely need to reach undisturbed, non-organic soil, so if you built the footer/stem wall you would need to dig out the organic matter from a perimeter trench, lay the footer, add in a stem wall of perhaps 6 feet high at the deep end, and graduated toward the shallow end. Backfill around the stem wall at least to a frost depth, then compact gravel lifts inside the wall system.

We had about a 4 foot slope drop over the 32' depth of our 42x32 pole barn. Took 240 tons of bank run gravel to fill (after removing the organics), compacted with the vibratory roller shown, in 6" lifts. Hard as a rock. THEN, put in the poles for the pole barn. it was a whole lot easier and cheaper to hit undisturbed soil with a bunch of poles than dig a trench. This was about 5 years ago, total cost for excavation and gravel about $6,000.

This image does not do justice to how much a slope there was. On the left the excavators graded out the slope.

 

[teal95]

It cost $7k to have the site leveled for my 40x40 pole barn. 3 days with a skid steer switching back and forth between a bucket and a vibratory compactor and between 2 and 4 dump trucks running. The lowest corner just covered the staking post that had 6' out of the ground.

 

[Jamesnlee]

Nice !


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[tools]

looks good. also thinking of doing 40x80. 40x40 10ft, 40x40 16ft ceilings split face block.

 

[Bretny]

Put an ad in Clist, facebook market place for clean fill wanted.
You might be suprised how much you can get for nothing. I have got roughly 270yrds of wood chips to fill a seasonal swampy area in my yard/woods. I paid nothing, no fuel, no trucking nothing.

 

[Jackfre]

Another option could be to put a basement under the garage. That way when you take over her garage for your woodworking shop you can put the dust collector/air compressor down in the hole. You need to look farther ahead!

 

[Randy in Maine]

Another option could be to put a basement under the garage. That way when you take over her garage for your woodworking shop you can put the dust collector/air compressor down in the hole. You need to look farther ahead!

Might also want to design it as a "storm shelter" with some pre-stressed concrete on top. Good drainage always pays off.

 

[kbs2244]

I second the basement idea.
Talk to a concrete guy that has done "walk out basement" houses.

 

[b-boy]

Put an ad in Clist, facebook market place for clean fill wanted.
You might be suprised how much you can get for nothing. I have got roughly 270yrds of wood chips to fill a seasonal swampy area in my yard/woods. I paid nothing, no fuel, no trucking nothing.

I did this. As a precaution, check the guy out first.

I have a huge pit in one part of my yard that I wanted to fill.

I had a guy show up with a dump trailer full of fill. It was mostly concrete and gravel from a driveway excavation.

The guy backed up near the pit, got out of his truck and started to lift the trailer to dump the contents. His truck started to roll backwards. Apparently he had no brakes. He jumped in the truck, fired it up and drove forward to keep it from rolling into the pit. In the process, all the fill ended up being dumped in my yard about 15 feet from where it should have been.

He apologized and said he'd come back and clean it all up. He never did, and apparently he lost my number, my address, and wouldn't pick up my calls.

Guess who had to move all that fill buy hand. So much for 'free' fill.

 

[PUGLIA]

Took a while to find the right guy to do the dirt work. Bout 3 days 2k. 40x40 pad used a compactor as he built it. I’m drilling 3’ holes for 6-8 concrete piers so the pad won’t move.









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[Bretny]

I did this. As a precaution, check the guy out first.

I have a huge pit in one part of my yard that I wanted to fill.

I had a guy show up with a dump trailer full of fill. It was mostly concrete and gravel from a driveway excavation.

The guy backed up near the pit, got out of his truck and started to lift the trailer to dump the contents. His truck started to roll backwards. Apparently he had no brakes. He jumped in the truck, fired it up and drove forward to keep it from rolling into the pit. In the process, all the fill ended up being dumped in my yard about 15 feet from where it should have been.

He apologized and said he'd come back and clean it all up. He never did, and apparently he lost my number, my address, and wouldn't pick up my calls.

Guess who had to move all that fill buy hand. So much for 'free' fill.

The fill was free. The location wasnt correct. Your halfway there and still way way less than paying someone to deliver, buy material, spread.

My location is mostly flat yet soft and muddy. I spread it with an old tractor. Spread out roughly 40yrds in the last week after work.