John Rumm wrote:

Howie wrote:

I am about to dig out a section of sloping hillside to make a
garage or carport. I will end up (on the highest side) with a
sheer face of earth approx 10' high and 18' long which I will
need to retain.


This sounds like the sort of job that would be much simpler to pile
before excavating the soil. i.e. you sink a series of adjacent piles to
a depth of say 20' - effectively building a wall with its foundation in
one process while still in the ground. Then you excavate the soil
uncovering the top of the piles on the down hill side. You can then
shutter them and pour concrete to face them neatly. Much less risky than
attempting to retain the soil while digging foundations and building a
wall from blockwork.

As the others have suggested it will need calculations to decide on pile
dimensions etc.




I had a "professional" landscape gardener in to do very similar, three
years ago, it has started leaning. I have just started proceedings
through a solicitor to try get it sorted. I had several landscapers in
to see if they could cure it, none would touch it. Similarly builders
said the only way they would do it was with a Structural Engineer's
plans. We were talking costs in excess of £20,000, maybe as much as
£30,000, one builders guess.

While I was prepared to pay a reasonable amount to get rid of the
problem I cannot afford that. If I had the job done properly from the
offset it would have been much cheaper, and a lot less hassle.



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