DIYbanter - View Single Post - Simple terracing in 1 ft steps, what material?

wheel

In article ,
says...
I have to deal with a hillside that has a 2:3 slope (if I'm saying that
right, slope goes down a two feet for every three out). The main goal
here is to forestall erosion, secondary to help plantings take root.
Hillside is about 70' wide, and it drops 10'. It has a mild contour to
it, so straight terracing wouldn't be ideal. Anyone have ideas re a good
material for the 'retaining walls'. I'm not really aiming at a full
strength retaining wall system which would probably cost a fortune to
install. More hoping that some easy going terracing will do enough.
Like, steel pegs knocked in two feet deep, with 1 foot up, and some
barrier material as the wall...what that would be I don't know, but have
wondered if there is some recycled plastic 3/4" x 1' king sized
benderboard material out there. Or are there 'systems' for this type of
situation? I'm not eager to use the cement blocks that are common, too
much weight to haul, it'd be a lot of block. There is no snow or
freezing where I live.

I don't know what your soil conditions are, but we have several slopes like
that around our place. I just covered them with bark dust and let the
natural vegetation grow. Digging in little terraces, planting trees, and
placing boulders here and there could help naturalize and stabilize the
hillside as well.

Many years ago, we terraced a hillside at our old apartment using railroad
ties. The cost wasn't too bad, and they worked rather well. But, ties seem
to be harder to find now than they were 20 years ago. You could do the same
thing with pressure treated 6x6 timbers, but the cost would be higher.

The cement blocks designed for wall building seem to be very popular,
sturdy, and easy to install. Most home centers will deliver to your site
(for a fee), so hauling them shouldn't be too much of an issue. Assuming,
of course, the truck can get to your site.

Take care,

Anthony

Thanks for that input. We're on a regular street but it'd be a lot of
hauling to get block back there...it's a lot of block. But maybe that's
the way to go. The hill was grassy till last year when a gopher colony
took root, and they've been accelerating the 'slide' of the hill. I
wiped them out last year but they've returned. So looking for a way to
mitigate the effects of the loose dirt the push out.