# Backyard Ideas



## Talental (Jun 29, 2018)

I am in the process of re-doing my backyard and I need some advice.

Because my lot was sort of in a bowl, I brought in a lot of dirt/chirt and built my lot up, which my neighbors didn't. 
After putting my pool in and for cost reasons I ended up with a decent size slope from the fence to the end of the property. Well, I am so glad that I built this section up cause the last 3 winters we have seen record amounts of rain which has caused the field behind my house to flood and some of this water gets on my property. It literally floods my neighbor's yard.

It doesn't help that I have one large culvert that stops about 50ft short of my property line and drains the whole neighborhood.

So, my questions, I want to fence in my back yard for my dog and children to enjoy without the fear of them getting into the culvert or out in the field. 
Thinking about doing a cinderblock wall. Just don't know what to do about the water problem or my slope problem. And is this a DIY job? How costly would a block wall 150ft long 4-5 feet high be? 
I just hate paying landscaping companies huge markups on labor.

I will attach some pictures.


----------



## robido (Jun 25, 2020)

You want to add a fence along the lower edge of the slope? In the 3rd picture it looks like you already have some kind of fencing, what is it?


----------



## Talental (Jun 29, 2018)

It's just a barb wire fence.

Yes, I am thinking my only option really is to build a retaining wall of some sort and back fill. 
The goal being to prevent further water intrusion and so my dog want get out.


----------



## Talental (Jun 29, 2018)

So, I got a couple quotes from some landscape companies. The quotes were based on a retaining wall (6 feet )and back filling with fill dirt and 6" of top soil. This would bring my yard up level with my pool, which is about 6 feet. 
These prices were ridiculous. Like price of new car high. 
So being the DIY'er we are, I started researching on doing this retaining wall myself. 
I have posted a couple of pictures of some examples using just block from Home Depot. 
Anyone have any experience doing this?


----------



## nnnnnate (Apr 23, 2020)

Check you're city code but typically if a wall is over 3 or 4 feet tall you'll need to have it engineered and get a permit. What many do to get around this is to build a wall to the limit, then step it back a few more feet then continue up to the required height. With something that tall you'll want to look at how to keep the wall from falling over. I know you're concerned about keep water out from the field but there will be pressure from the top side pushing that wall the other direction.

I built a retaining wall from cinder block last year in two sections. The first is just about 20" tall that will work as a sitting wall around a "sunken" patio. The other is about 3.5' tall to build up an area by my driveway to level that area out a bit. I had never done masonry before but consider myself a fairly capable diy-er. It actually went really well. It wasn't hard to keep it level front to back but I did get a little un planned curve by the driveway. Odell Complete Concrete has some youtube videos that were a big help to get over the initial anxiety of starting. He does a great job explaining the steps and giving good details on them. I added geogrid to my taller while despite it not being required but I just never want to have to worry about the wall tipping or not being able to support the soil up there.


----------

