| john jacob 2006-06-14, 11:21 am |
| I recently purchased a steel building. 30x36 3 bay garage. It is a truss
type building. 4 total trusses.
The site I have is hilly. There is a 4 foot change in grade within the
36 feet of the building site.
I had planned on having a concrete guy dig footers, and block foundation
to bring up the sides to level, then fill and compact the inside of the
block foundation, pouring a wire, and bar filled slab on top. The
trusses would sit on concrete footers dug down below the frost line.
I got several estimates for the foundation, footers, slab. They are all
around 22 thousand dollars. Way too much for me to afford.
Here is my question.
I have plenty of dirt on hand. Would it be possible to build a retaining
wall, (much like the ones you see along the roadways holding back hill
sides) Using steel I beams, set vertical, in concrete footers, 8 feet on
center. Set 2x8 pt lumber in between the I beams, stacking them up, to
create a wall. Then fill behind the wall, compacting the soil,
alternating soil, stone, recycled concrete. Until the site is level.
Then either pour a slab on top, or use black top as the slab. Along the
2 long sides of the garage, I would ramp dirt, covered with cr stone as
a driveway. This ramp would also serve to "hold back" the retaining wall.
Does this seem possible, and practical? What problems could I run into?
I live near a quarry, and stone is easy to get. Also, dirt is easy to get.
John Jacob
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