With the larger of the two mostly built, we start laying down supports for the other side of the building. This area will be more less intensive as the level change is not that much. But still enough to make us want to back some dirt up against the building and keep it there.
The first retaining wall took many months to build. It is over 60 feet long and stands over 10 feet in some areas. So even though it took a long time to build it was quite the undertaking. I would have hired out help to build it, but the only local guy I know tends not to work this time of year and just enjoys hunting and fishing while the weather is good. So it was left up to us to complete, slowly but surely it has all come together.
Using the skid steer auger drill we measure the distance between each and drill holes down. Then we will lay the posts in the ground and pour concrete. Really thankful for this machine, otherwise an entire day or more would be spent just digging for posts.
My foreman getting out to measure before the next hole is drilled out. It was a cool foggy morning, nice before the sun came out and cooked away all the morning dew.
Making lots of concrete, mixing bags with water and pouring into the holes. I can take two wheel barrow loads to fill each hole.
Luckily the water is the easy part, we just open the rain barrel spigot and it pours out into the wheel barrow.
We have ran the gutter drain piping first and then add dirt over the top.
With all the holes filled with concrete we now let them set for a few days.
We still had a little bit of concrete left so we moved it back to the shopwork with the skid steer, all these attachments make easy work moving heavy items. Each one of those bags is 80 pounds so I am glad to have this.
With the posts dry its time to level out the area and add the first of the timbers.
Looking at the first retaining wall:
Amazing how far its come, timber after timber it now stands tall and is level with the building. We still need to smooth out the dirt on top and add the sides but its holding strong. Its mostly complete now, just needs a few more days to dial in this area.
This took a long time but looking back it was a lot of work so makes sense.
Hopefully they will stand for many decades. If there are any troubles we should be able to overcome them. But time will tell for sure.
Like I said the sides need to be completed, but that is just a small area now. Then we can focus on the smaller wall and get it all built.
The back side of the building is not so bad, we plan on just adding lots of gravel. Though if we need to come back later and add a wall we can. Just happens to be some trees there and we do not want to damage their roots building a wall that is not needed. But getting those two other walls done is top priority and well under way.