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jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 20 2:05 pm Post subject:
Good questions, without answers. I have been told that the funky shape of the plot is that there was originally meant to be another house in the mix, but they figured it would do a Monty Python sketch and sink into the swamp.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Sat Mar 07, 20 2:32 pm Post subject:
so far

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 20 10:24 am Post subject:

There is a whole kind of geological timeline historically. The house itself is on a foundation extending some ways, and who knows what the builders may have done aside from that.

I was told a previous owner put in tonnes of earth, which I can testify to going on all the differences I have seen digging for my own inversion of the top half of the garden. I am assuming that this previous indiscriminate dumping of earth with only one retaining element, explains why there is such a plummet.

We have also put many tonnes of stuff in, albeit in what I think is a more considered fashion.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Sun Mar 08, 20 11:14 am Post subject:

in that case you will need to get below that to create the foundations for the verticals of the retaining walls
i would make the top drop just tall enough to get to something solid and build it strong( are you good at shuttering if so a steel and concrete top wall might be an ace idea), that will stabilize the area beside the house foundations and then work out your levels and drops below that as a garden project rather than civils.

it sounds like your previous owner had the right sort of ideas about making a slope into terraces but not the right engineering or layout ones

digging back from the current top edge towards the house might provide a solid ish base fairly close to the current surface

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 20 2:01 pm Post subject:
finally a bit of progress.

sean
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 42219
Location: North Devon

Posted: Mon Mar 09, 20 9:50 pm Post subject:
Could you resize that a bit please?

Mistress Rose

Joined: 21 Jul 2011
Posts: 15998

Posted: Tue Mar 10, 20 7:31 am Post subject:
That looks like good soil anyway. Well done for making a start.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Wed Mar 11, 20 10:28 pm Post subject:

that soil does look like it is worth keeping safe as topsoil for later, what it is sitting on especially below the big drop is the thing to discover

it took me a while to try to get to know your site but i recon i still have a less than perfect mental 3d map of the wonky twisty thing

some dimensions i can near guess by sizes of timber etc but the slope angle from top to bottom evades me entirely as does is your bottom level the bottom level or does the slope continue downwards to the flat swampy looking bit and if so by how much?

next questions what are the vertical compositions of the ground at the plausible top to mid level boundary lines?
how solid are they?

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 20 7:39 am Post subject:

So much is obscured, it is very hard to get to grips with. The marsh flooded totally yesterday water levels rising my close to 1m maybe.

I got a bit more digging done and now see that approximately I need to take an initial step down of something like 40cm or I'll be terracing up at the bottom. e.g. 40cm approx respects the slope we inherited, but this is still working by my eye and I'd claim bad spatial awareness, so I need to get the the point of being able to measure.

Slim

Joined: 05 Mar 2006
Posts: 6613
Location: New England (In the US of A)

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 20 10:47 am Post subject:
Can you borrow a transit level from anyone? Make your own mini topo map

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Thu Mar 12, 20 11:20 am Post subject:

Not sure that would help where it counts because of the lack of access.
Pragmatically my attitude is one of terracing down as much as I sensibly can, with the idea that I can get the bottom deck safely accessible and take it from there.
There's a lot of work and I'm about to do some digging now, just to get to that point, and so that's the bit I am bothering about getting right for now. The rest can wait.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 20 3:26 pm Post subject:

Taking shape and it's becoming more apparent that much deeper starts getting awkward. So that in turn means the raised bed that is marked by the decking you can see will suffice as a retaining bit. The beds will be 72cm high and 60cm wide.The weather will probably stop work at the weekend, but hopefully 4.2m of raised bed will be created Monday so we can shovel earth in.
As we are not going deep up top it creates more work down bottom, but that is literally just the lie of the land.

I figure we go down another few inches and see how that feels? It is still basically as deep as does not make access compromised.

dpack

Joined: 02 Jul 2005
Posts: 46249
Location: yes

Posted: Fri Mar 13, 20 9:44 pm Post subject:
it looks like a different geology to the topsoil that has already moved, a bit deeper into what looks more solid might help stabilize things and find a good cut line for the next drop's foundations.

jema
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Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 20 8:42 am Post subject:
bit deeper here, may be going a little more down though. We are at this point a little below in part one phase of people adding stuff. seeing bits of brick in what is coming up now! its all layers.

jema
Downsizer Moderator

Joined: 28 Oct 2004
Posts: 28239
Location: escaped from Swindon

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 20 1:49 pm Post subject:
target design, not rectangular as I am not wanting to push my luck with the slope. I will put a pitched roof on of part polycarb part chicken wire, same with the walls. Made a small start on digging down another 3 inches. I figure with those dimensions and that depth, the serious terracing needed won't be needed in advance of building all of this. Which makes life a lot simpler.

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