The intent with this project is to remove the toe of the slope coming into the barn and build a rock retaining wall with french drain behind it, move the fill dirt to the other side of the barn to create a driveway (road) and level behind the barn in prep for covered storage for hay. Here is what it looked like before I started, the flags are intended to be the gauge for cutting into the hill:
View from the front of barn:
Looking down at the area that will be cleared for storage, tractor parking, etc.
View from the back of the barn, looking towards the front:
More to follow...
/ Building a Rock Wall, a Road, and grading around the Barn
Here is a short list of the material and equipment:
1 - KX91-3 Kubota Excavator (33 hrs) rental with 12/24" buckets w/ hydraulic thumb
1 - L3400 with FEL (19 hrs)
2 - Guys, sometimes one, and a few dogs
28 Ton of med/lrg one man basalt quarry rock (90% of them needed to be moved with Excavator)
12 yards 5/8" clean
12 yards 1 1/2" clean (should have gone 2", lesson learned)
pile of rocks with machine to move 'em:
clean backfill and the area to be leveled:
/ Building a Rock Wall, a Road, and grading around the Barn
This was the beginning of the excavation, I started in the back corner and worked my way up to the front, As I dug out the dirt my friend moved it to the opposite side of the barn and began to fill in the area for the driveway road. It's amazing how much dirt comes out when you start digging, we moved about 100 yards of dirt from one side of the barn to the other. All of this work was completed on day 1. The trench was dug in and all the dirt moved out to the drive.
Let the digging begin:
Pile of dirt is growing:
Completed the corner dig and started in on the side:
Building up for the road:
Finally the dirt is out and the trench is dug:
/ Building a Rock Wall, a Road, and grading around the Barn
Day 2: I cleaned out the trench and layed down the base rock and geotex, socked the pipe and backfilled 6" over the pipe. I was able to start placing the rock. This is where I realized the amount of time this would take, the pile of rocks was about 100ft from the back corner and I had to travel along the front side of the barn. The only benefit to this was that I was able to compact the road. At the end of the day the wall was 20% completed.
Laying the pipe:
Backfilling:
The first rocks are set:
/ Building a Rock Wall, a Road, and grading around the Barn
The next 3 days were pretty much moving and setting rock with a bit of grading mixed in. I realized quickly I had underestimated the amount of rock I would need to complete this so another load was brought in. This time I had them dumped right in front of the barn so I could quickly move them to the wall. Gotta love the excavator and the ability to spin the chassis 180 degrees without moving the tracks. I gotta get me one of these!
Back corner of wall is mostly completed and grading has started, still have alot of dirt to remove to get rid of the hump. This is where the blade on the excavtor came in real handy. It's not a dozer but it worked pretty well:
2nd load of rocks:
Starting to see the progress of the week. the base row is 6' setback from the barn wall. Enough space to get the quad back there or even park the tractor until I get the roof on the back area:
/ Building a Rock Wall, a Road, and grading around the Barn
Front side of barn, grading mostly completed. soon to be graveled. This is a low traffic area so not sure I'll lay down any geotextile here but still under consideration:
Wider view of the front, wall is 90% completed and getting ready to grade this area:
/ Building a Rock Wall, a Road, and grading around the Barn
Yes, the project was much bigger then I originally anticipated. I figured I would need the excavator for 2 days but soon called the rental co and told them I needed another day. At 3.5 days I was pretty much into it a week was just able to finish the heavy lifting within that time - I did have to go to my day job too!! ;-) I had planned on doing a couple other small projects while I had it but wasn't even able to do that. Oh well, that's what next year is for.
All of the dirt that came off the toe was moved to the opposite side of the barn to build it up as it had a pretty steep downslope. I was able to use it all and what was left over I ended up creating a small landing off the back to be used for a sort of turn-around area for vehichles. It's not really big enough for a dump-type truck but plenty big enough for a pickup-truck or my tractor. I'll post a couple more pictures tomorrow. I have another load of gravel showing up at 7:30am so I need to get to bed. haha..
/ Building a Rock Wall, a Road, and grading around the Barn
Nice post: keep up the good work, my situation is very similar, (should have taken more photos. I had 100 ton fill brought in and moved probably 300 more on my project. doing nearly same thing only I'm not using large rock for a wall only building up a bearm around the barn as there is less slope & more area to work in. looks good though
mark M
/ Building a Rock Wall, a Road, and grading around the Barn
