Looking from the inside of our house to the backyard, it slopes from
left to right and slightly back towards the street. We want to build a
leveled stone patio, only slightly sloped for drainage.

Should we excavate the soil to make patio leveled with the lower
grade, or should we build the lower grade up, with retaining walls on
the side? Thanks.

On May 2, 8:27*am, Student wrote:
Looking from the inside of our house to the backyard, it slopes from
left to right and slightly back towards the street. We want to build a
leveled stone patio, only slightly sloped for drainage.

Should we excavate the soil to make patio leveled with the lower
grade, or should we build the lower grade up, with retaining walls on
the side? Thanks.

That depends on the heights of what the patio meets
up to, eg the house ettrances, walkways, etc. and aesthetics.
Everything else being equal, it's usually easier to avoid having
retaining walls. Either way, you'll have to remove the topsoil
that is there and backfill with base material.

On May 2, 1:27*pm, Student wrote:
Looking from the inside of our house to the backyard, it slopes from
left to right and slightly back towards the street. We want to build a
leveled stone patio, only slightly sloped for drainage.

Should we excavate the soil to make patio leveled with the lower
grade, or should we build the lower grade up, with retaining walls on
the side? Thanks.

Either option is feasible.

On May 2, 8:42*am, "
wrote:
On May 2, 8:27*am, Student wrote:

Looking from the inside of our house to the backyard, it slopes from
left to right and slightly back towards the street. We want to build a
leveled stone patio, only slightly sloped for drainage.

Should we excavate the soil to make patio leveled with the lower
grade, or should we build the lower grade up, with retaining walls on
the side? Thanks.

That depends on the heights of what the patio meets
up to, eg the house ettrances, walkways, etc. and aesthetics.
Everything else being equal, it's usually easier to avoid having
retaining walls. *Either way, you'll have to remove the topsoil
that is there and backfill with base material.

I think we need more info.

One way to picture this without any more info is either a retaining
wall on the low side to bring it up to level of the high side or a
retaining wall on the high side to hold back whatever is left after
digging out that section.

I guess we need to know what will be "exposed" if the high side is dug
out: A wall, dirt, what?

On May 2, 4:03*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On May 2, 8:42*am, "
wrote:

On May 2, 8:27*am, Student wrote:

Looking from the inside of our house to the backyard, it slopes from
left to right and slightly back towards the street. We want to build a
leveled stone patio, only slightly sloped for drainage.

Should we excavate the soil to make patio leveled with the lower
grade, or should we build the lower grade up, with retaining walls on
the side? Thanks.

That depends on the heights of what the patio meets
up to, eg the house ettrances, walkways, etc. and aesthetics.
Everything else being equal, it's usually easier to avoid having
retaining walls. *Either way, you'll have to remove the topsoil
that is there and backfill with base material.

I think we need more info.

One way to picture this without any more info is either a retaining
wall on the low side to bring it up to level of the high side or a
retaining wall on the high side to hold back whatever is left after
digging out that section.

I guess we need to know what will be "exposed" if the high side is dug
out: A wall, dirt, what?

We would be digging into the soil to level it with the lower grade, so
it would be soil on all sides.

To give you a clearer picture,

- This patio won't be adjacent to the house or any other structure.
We'll have a 10x12" deck attached to the house, about 2' high.

- When you step onto the deck from the house, a garage wall is on the
left, backyard is in front and on the right.

- This patio would be in front of the deck.

- Looking from the deck towards the patio, the slope of the backyard
goes from left to right.

- The size of the patio would be 12'x14', the longer side goes L to R,
shorter side B to F.

- The slope in that longer 14' section is about 8". I understand that
the patio should have slope of 1/4" per foot for drainage, so that's
3.5". We'd still like to level the rest.

Please let me know if you need more info. Thank you all for your
help!

On May 3, 10:19*am, Student wrote:
On May 2, 4:03*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:





On May 2, 8:42*am, "
wrote:

On May 2, 8:27*am, Student wrote:

Looking from the inside of our house to the backyard, it slopes from
left to right and slightly back towards the street. We want to build a
leveled stone patio, only slightly sloped for drainage.

Should we excavate the soil to make patio leveled with the lower
grade, or should we build the lower grade up, with retaining walls on
the side? Thanks.

That depends on the heights of what the patio meets
up to, eg the house ettrances, walkways, etc. and aesthetics.
Everything else being equal, it's usually easier to avoid having
retaining walls. *Either way, you'll have to remove the topsoil
that is there and backfill with base material.

I think we need more info.

One way to picture this without any more info is either a retaining
wall on the low side to bring it up to level of the high side or a
retaining wall on the high side to hold back whatever is left after
digging out that section.

I guess we need to know what will be "exposed" if the high side is dug
out: A wall, dirt, what?

We would be digging into the soil to level it with the lower grade, so
it would be soil on all sides.

To give you a clearer picture,

- This patio won't be adjacent to the house or any other structure.
We'll have a 10x12" deck attached to the house, about 2' high.

- When you step onto the deck from the house, a garage wall is on the
left, backyard is in front and on the right.

- This patio would be in front of the deck.

- Looking from the deck towards the patio, the slope of the backyard
goes from left to right.

- The size of the patio would be 12'x14', the longer side goes L to R,
shorter side B to F.

- The slope in that longer 14' section is about 8". I understand that
the patio should have slope of 1/4" per foot for drainage, so that's
3.5". We'd still like to level the rest.

Please let me know if you need more info. Thank you all for your
help!- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

How you expect anyone to give you more advice
than you've already gotten without some pictures
is beyond me. It's pretty much about aesthetics
and without seeing it, all you're getting is guessing.