# stopping a hill from collapse



## lseehwtohms (Jul 23, 2008)

hello guys i am looking for ideas on how to stop a hill side from sliding down...... the hill is probally 70 to 80 degree slope and about 20 to 25 feet tall ....and at the bottom there is a creek about 8 inches deep and 5 feet wide .(except once a year it turnes into white water rapids from rain)...the idea for now is to get 20 tons of sand and kinda fill it back in some and lay black cloth weed barrior over it and than cover the hill with rip rap rock ...but a few weeks ago i seen a hill done the same way and it slid down ...i am wondering if there is a better way of fixxing this problem ? was thinking about building 2 or 3 tear terrace walls ,or building wire baskets to the hillside and filling them with the rip rap ..if i build the terraces should i use some 4 inch drain tile to help with drainage ? i am a concrete repair and decorative concrete guy buy trade and am looking for ideas if anyone has advice or links to pages to explain how to fix this ..or pictures would be great ...i have searched the site and several others with no luck thanks for any advice


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## sparehair (Nov 21, 2008)

whatever you do, pay your liability insurance before you do it. and health insurance. and aflac.


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## cexcavation (Apr 17, 2008)

lseehwtohms said:


> hello guys i am looking for ideas on how to stop a hill side from sliding down...... the hill is probally 70 to 80 degree slope and about 20 to 25 feet tall ....and at the bottom there is a creek about 8 inches deep and 5 feet wide .(except once a year it turnes into white water rapids from rain)...the idea for now is to get 20 tons of sand and kinda fill it back in some and lay black cloth weed barrior over it and than cover the hill with rip rap rock ...but a few weeks ago i seen a hill done the same way and it slid down ...i am wondering if there is a better way of fixxing this problem ? was thinking about building 2 or 3 tear terrace walls ,or building wire baskets to the hillside and filling them with the rip rap ..if i build the terraces should i use some 4 inch drain tile to help with drainage ? i am a concrete repair and decorative concrete guy buy trade and am looking for ideas if anyone has advice or links to pages to explain how to fix this ..or pictures would be great ...i have searched the site and several others with no luck thanks for any advice


Without seeing the site it is hard to say. Soil conditions/type make a huge difference. From the sounds of it, though, you have quite the predicament. 70 to 80deg slope on 20-25 feet sounds a little spooky. Try and terrace that and you run out of room real quick unless you knock the top of the hill off. If it were me, and there was room to do so, I would come out 25ft, dig a 4ft footing and plant some monster riprap that interlock. Then I would start pull the hill down and build my wall as I go up planting "dead man" rocks every so often. Make sure you "key" your rocks in so you are not relying strictly on gravity. Point being, your slope is too steep given the height, so you either ease the slope or lower the height. Just my .02cents and it's probably only worth .01cent:clap:


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## Driftwood (Feb 15, 2004)

*call a geo tech.*

Ask about soil nailing.


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## AtlRemodeling (Jan 23, 2008)

Without a doubt you need to have a engineer who specializes in mechanically stabilized earth (retaining walls and reinforced slopes). They will be able to recommend the proper stabilization of this slope. In my days as a MSE company, we handled a number of situations similar to this and there is no exact answer based on your information. The engineer will be able to sample the earth to determine quality and makeup of the soil. As CEX stated this makes a HUGE difference. Other factors include flow rate of the stream, amount of runoff from adjoining property, loads on the slope. 

Products like Mirafi and Tensar (and several others) work very well for situations like this but I would not recommend you tackle this without professional advice on site.


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## Nac (Apr 16, 2006)

You definitely need an engineer to design something. You could do some type of SRW, soil nails, gabions, and etc... how is the access to the site what is on top of the slope?


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## lseehwtohms (Jul 23, 2008)

thanks guys for the help ...the soil is a very sandy soil ...i figured the top of the hill would have to be cut back and lose a few feet of the drive way...after looking into it we found what used to hold it back ...a old duel exhaust system from a old car ...the fraim rails from the car ..and what looks like the rest of the car used as fill ....:laughing:...there are some very bright people in the world ...


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## TimelessQuality (Sep 23, 2007)

lseehwtohms said:


> we found what used to hold it back ...a old duel exhaust system from a old car ...the fraim rails from the car ..and what looks like the rest of the car used as fill ....:laughing:...there are some very bright people in the world ...


PICS!!!!!


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## cleveman (Dec 28, 2007)

I would put a coat of epoxy on it and hope that would stop the erosion.


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## Little (Jul 22, 2006)

If you consider some kind of retaining wall, i would def check out Stonestrong.com. I have used it before and it is excellent.


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