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OK, OK I realize now I should have asked more questions instead of ASSuming I knew the answer and making an ass of myself as they say. The problem is that I didn't know that I didn't know if that makes sense.
Here's the story.....I just bought a house that has a huge hill behind it which is great ...except that there isn't much yard. When I saw it, I thought "I'll just dig out some of the dirt at the bottom to give myself more space". When I asked my realtor what equipment I'd need to rent to dig away at it, he said I should terrace it instead. There are 2 problems with that
1. I won't have much money left for major landscaping so I need to do stuff myself.
2. I can't see myself talking a walk back and forth on the terraced hills in a zig zag
So if its not too difficult or expensive, I'd rather remove as much of the hill as possible.
Can someone please tell me if I would be safe in using a small backhoe to scrape away at the bottom 10 feet, then hauling the dirt away? I thought that if I keep the hill shape basically the same (just a bit steeper)..I wouldn't risk causing a mudslide or worse..am I right? I have no idea how much of the hill is dirt and how much is rock! There are some big trees on it so there must be a few feet of dirt.... right?
Is a backhoe what I should be asking for? Would they rent it to me or do I need a special license to operate it?
Why don't you call some landscape companies and have them come out and give you some ideas, errrrr, estimates on what you might could do.
My non professional opinion is that if you start diigging that bank back , you are going to be left with a steep cutoff, that might need some wall/timber reinforcement.
How far up the hill does your property go? And how far is your house from where it starts to slope up?
Oh yes, take in consideration how rainfall hits that and runs off. You sure don't want to create drainage issues that could affect your home.
Sigh. I think yoiu're probably right Crazyma. I'm worried that it would be thousands of bucks, but I guess I could ask...and hope.
The hill is about 25 feet high. If you follow it up past my property line, the hill flattens out again and there is another house (on a different street). The closest corner of the house is about 12 feet away, thats why I thought even another 5 feet of flat space would make a big difference.
What kind of drainage issues could I cause?? I hadn't thought of that
My mom suggested putting big rocks instead of a wall to hold back the dirt. I love the idea but I have a feeling they'd be very expensive since I need so many.
You are looking at a seriously expensive and possibly dangerous operation. First, it looks like the base of the hill has already been excavated out to create the drive to the garage. That hill slope doesn't appear to be a normal angle of repose, the trees are relatively young, and one of them has a trunk that isn't vertical (that is usually caused by a slump of the slope after the tree has grown for a while).
Five feet of additional flat space? Call it 6' for ease of calculation, figure the height at 24' and the width of the excavated area at 30'. That is about 160 cubic yards of material to cart off, I guessing at least five full truckloads. You also have trees to remove, and you have to stabilize the new slope once you have removed the existing one. Good luck on rocks. I've seen trees growing out of granite ledges, just because there is a tree, you can't assume there is deep soil.
Will a big backhoe attack the slope? Sure. But once you get a pile of dirt and rock, how do you plan on removing it? A truck isn't going to sit and wait while you load it in scoop by scoop. By the time you got through paying rental on the backhoe, paying for the cartage, and paying to have the slope reconfigured, you would probably pay as much as if you hired a contractor. A contractor can come out with a bulldozer, a backhoe, a loader, and a couple of trucks, and have the job done in two or three days. However, if the slope is steeper that what you have now, it probably won't do anything but slump down over time and fill in the leveled area.
Harry gave good advice. You will definitely have to add some support. You also need to consider the liability involved if you rearrange the hill. If it is not done correctly and it slumps and destabilizes, it could cause damage to your neighbor's property which would definitely cost a fortune.
All hills (sand, dirt) have something called "the angle of repose" - that's the point where, at a given moisture condition, the hill slope is stable. If you cut away at the base of the slope, you will alter the angle of repose now, and it will just get worse as the slope gets wetter (say in the winter).
The slope has already slid once (or is gradually sliding) - see that large tree on the left in the first picture? It has a "knee" where it's growth was altered as the slope moved when the tree was young. Trees want to grow straight up, and that growth pattern is telling you that "straight up" has changed. The tree that's entirely at an angle tells you the slope was moved (probably for construction of the house or the garage) when the tree was near present height.
What you want to do is a pretty bad idea.
Last edited by PNW-type-gal; 07-18-2008 at 09:28 AM..
It could be done, but to do it correctly so it doesn't disturb the integrtiy of what is above is a key factor. I think that doing a couple of terraced areas might be best...a more gradual 'dig' into the hill, if you will, with the appropiate retaining walls....just branstorming.
Call some grading and landscape contractors, see what they would suggest. And then you will have some better ideas of how it could be addressed and the feasibility.
This is not a do it yourself project, especially when it is obvious you have no experience with earth moving. Yu could create huge problems for yourself, AND you may cause problems for the people living up slope.
CALL IN PROFESSIONALS!!!!! The people here have given you good advice - heed it.
Lol, I was just thinking and this kind of reminds me of the time that guy on here wanted to dig his own basement. roflmao.
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The problem is that I didn't know that I didn't know if that makes sense. 
