We had to form and pour retaining walls in front of the house to hold back the driveway and parking area from the front yard of the house. The site was so steep that we had to find a "happy medium" elevation so there were not to many steps down to the backyard or out the front door up to the parking. If we had pulled the house entry level with the driveway it would have required nearly 10-12 steps out of the basement door and onto the backyard. We tried to split the difference by stepping down to the front door from the driveway 5 or 6 steps and then out of the basement door 5 steps to the back. That did create the extra cost of the additional retaining wall since typically the house basement wall usually doubles as a retaining wall for the parking. In addition we needed to incorporate a way to get down the the existing path to the guest cabin and a level walkway to the screen porch from the front yard.
Having to consider all of these aspects as well as how the power lines, water lines, gas lines and downspout and water drainage will work it's way around or through the retaining wall is something that must be very well planned and executed before the pour. It took several meetings with the concrete guy, my brother and my main crew leader on the job to make sure everything had been considered. The retaining wall was engineered and inspected before pouring.
10/12/2011
10/12/2011