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We're having a large shed put in on our hillside property. For reasons I won't go into, they cleared some cedars and brush on the uphill, fairly steep side of where it will go, and leveled the site for the most part. Now, we've been in a drought, but I've lived here long enough to know what happens when heavy rainfall or flooding occurs on a hillside. I stressed the necessity of a wall being built on the uphill side where they cut into the side of the hill at places a couple of feet. Well, DH agreed, but then must have dropped the ball on that. I went out the other day and the workers had put a bunch of concrete in and filled in somewhat next to the shed, making a concrete trough of some kind along the base of the side of shed, extending to the hillside. Supposedly, the water (and whatever erosion sends downhill) would go flowing along that to the back of the shed, at least that's what they thought (God help fools who think). The shed is up on a wooden framework and has plywood for flooring. Our fenced yard is next to the corner of the shed and the yard slopes downward a bit. How disastrous is this? There are more problems with this shed site, but right now I'm just wondering what we can do about this.
The shed from front to back on that side. The trough is slanted to the back, so water would more likely be going toward the back than to the front side, although I think it would go both ways if enough rain is coming down. Also the base of the walls has some concrete over the flashing, slanted toward the trough. There are a line of concrete blocks underneath this concrete trough from the front. I don't know if they go all the way back.
And this is the back corner on that side. They are going to put a line of the concrete blocks in on the back side to make a little wall. We wanted to save all the oaks we could. There's one right back of that corner. Can you see why I'm worried with the shed right by the cut they made in the hillside and most of the vegetation pretty much wiped out up there? They put a berm of cedar limbs and some soil halfway up the slope to the back road.
I'd want a retaining wall a few feet toward the hillside ... 1 ft thick of stone or cement and as high up and dug down as needed to hide the scars from where the flat perch was carved out of the hillside and ensure that it stayed on the hillside where you build it. The last thing you want is for the water coming off that hillside to wear any sort of run-off rut and begin creating something resembling that. You might need a 2nd wall on the outer side of the shed a couple feet as well. You'll need footings dug down close to 2 ft into the hillside... reinforced with quite a bit of rebar rods. That really looks like an expensive location to put a small metal shed. I suppose there were no better / safer / cheaper locations available? Often there is a better way but ... seeing the better choice usually requires having made the mistake to see where the better choice was. Hindsight is usually better than foresight.
So true! About hindsight, I mean. I thought the shed should be put with the back of the shed back farther toward where I was standing to take this picture (this is the back of the shed, BTW), a little farther away from the fenced yard. There, either the tree shown here would have to go or a couple red oaks. So then DH decided we could save both and it ended up where you see it. I didn't know exactly where it really was going until later. Then I noticed how much was being cut into the hillside, but still didn't think it would be right up against that excavated part. I wanted a real retaining wall when I saw the excavation into the hillside and the unnecessary clearing of cedars and vegetation above it, not this. But DH apparently didn't take the flooding & erosion scenario seriously. And it's not so small...20 ft. X 24 ft., which is why it was so difficult to find a place for it.
A view of the upper hillside with the berm and cleared areas. It probably doesn't show the slope of land very well. I might add that there is a much taller cut into the hillside about 8 feet behind our back fence which has no wall or anything like that, but we have a back yard plus the 8 feet between our house and that. Still, I have noticed when we have a lot of rain for too long a time, there can be a bit of standing water in the back yard for a while. But the hill behind that was never cleared and has trees and grasses, etc. I think that helps.
A view of the other side on the shed with a concrete block wall underneath. We're going to need another little wall along our fence so that all the extra caliche brought in to level won't be washed down into the yard to cover the plants we have inside the fence..
What kills me is the labor effort and additional expense put out ... just for a metal shed ... I freak out every time we spend a dollar any more with the economy diving. If you have to build retaining walls ... my gosh the cost will likely skyrocket (like double). Everyone needs storage ... I've got so much storage here ... its insane and most is just empty air. We have a huge metal shop / shed. I absolutely hate it. Its like 60 ft long by 35 ft wide and 14 ft ceiling and 75% empty. Dives me crazy to see it ... such a waste of space and money and ugly. At least your building appears to be nice looking. We get 9 inches of rain here so the water erosion situation is not an issue.
