How is this done?

[Onoff]

It being a nature reserve wouldn't have ruled out them using a 2-stroke petrol post hole borer at all. Reckon you're overthinking it.

 

You now have my crown! ?

 

You're also not bothering to read people's replies. At least two of us have already said it's pretty certain a digger driver wouldn't want to try and get down that slope.

 

Hand job / muscle:

 

https://www.screwfix.com/p/spear-jackson-post-hole-auger/3911k

 

Hire a petrol one:

 

https://www.hirestation.co.uk/tool-hire/Landscaping/Post-Hole-Borer-Hire/140050/

 

Maybe your mate with the digger would give you a hand for a drink in wielding the petrol one. Always good to have two people with something like this.

Edited May 24, 2019 by Onoff

[Ferdinand]

40 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

I still want to know how the chap might have done these dune walkway uprights. If I rule out a digger shunting in (too far away/ nature resrve too), rule out motor-auger (noise & heavy ass thing to take 300m to site), rule out concreting (surely sand would just fill making you go mental). So.. hammered them in? but I can't see any sign of tops being whacked.

 

If you volunteer for the National Trust or RSPB, you eventually get to find out.

 

Or just phone up and ask them, or the local wildlife trust.

 

It may be that they would come and build one for you in exchange for a donation.

 

There are 27 ways of approaching this and all of them can work with care.

 

I think that the second hand telegraph poles are perhaps a good bet, as is perhaps hiring a fence man for the day and labouring for him, or talking to people who have done it. Though personally I would still build it out of scaff in the first instance.

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Ferdinand

[Ferdinand]

You also get Timmy Mallett style 5-8kg hammers on 1m handles for pushing posts in, but those always looked a bit unpredictable to me, and I felt I might get knocked in before the post did. It is called a "Maul".

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Ferdinand

[zoothorn]

16 hours ago, joe90 said:

After reading this and knowing I have to put in about 50 posts I bought this, purely as a punt, connected to a torquey SDS machine it may work (but I am not holding my breath) ?

 

No Joe this is different. The prior thread altho has similar 'upright posts' but is a different kettle of fish: that was one idea to support a log cabin at the very end. And is still current. You see its such a HUGELY tricky bit of land all of this lower garden area, especially at the end.

 

If only I had someone here who knows about 'structural landscaping'. I've had 2 builders: one mused for a while & said "no Id not be wanting to do the job" (just too tricky slope & such minimal flat 'top' width). Then my builder, who determined a solution so quickly (concrete blocks > pillars ontop in 2 mins flat).. I wasn't confident he put enough thought into it. He could be right tho.. but I can't afford his quote of £900.

 

Forgive me, but this is an extremely difficult connundrum for me with such minimal width & 2 b'stard slopes in the mix. If I get it wrong, I don't have the funds to redo it. The more 'prep' & research I do the better.. the right plan of attack might come into focus.

[Jeremy Harris]

Concrete pads with bolt on post brackets would work OK.  Just dig a hole, maybe add a bit of timber shuttering around the top, fill it with concrete (the ready mix bag stuff would do OK), level the top, then when cured drill the top and fit post brackets, like these:

 

 

You can get galvanised versions of these that are a fair bit better.  You can bolt them down with thunderbolts easily enough, or use one of the adhesive bond fixings (we have a row of posts fixed to the top of a wall that are just fixed to brackets like this that are thunderbolted down).

 

You don't need to worry about getting the concrete pads all the same height, just get them pretty much in line.  The posts can be trimmed down once they are in place to get the level right.

[Gone West]

@zoothorn How many terraces do you want to create between the top and the stream or do you want a single 3.5m high retaining wall leveling off the garden?

Edited May 24, 2019 by PeterStarck

[Onoff]

13 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

structural landscaping

 

Where is this walkway going exactly, down next to the stream and following its course? Will there be a stepped section down to a boardwalk?

[PeterW]

This is a simple fix. 

 

You need a pair of piers that are at least 3ft out of the ground (exceptional water height in spate) and 2 ft into the ground. That’s a 6ft post give or take. Farm supplies will have 10” gate posts of that or more in tanalised timber for about £60

 

Post hole machine is £35 hired. Four pack of beer is £5. Ask a mate to come and hold the other side of the hole borer for beer. 

 

Soak the bottom 4ft of pole in 2 or 3 coats of creocote. Drill hole as deep as possible, insert post and backfill with either a bag of post-mix or some ballast. Post is now installed. 

 

Do the same for the other. 

 

Drink beer. 

 

These posts really are taking the vertical loads. Triangulated with decent timber, they will support the deck and then it will become a rigid structure. 

[MarkyP]

I'm going to hire a post hole auger attachment for my digger when I tackle some fencing at scale. Did I mention I'd bought a digger? Doesn't hurt to mention again, you know, just in case anyone missed it. There's so much that suddenly becomes doable with this thing, everyone should own one. And I'm having so much fun operating it that I may need plastic surgery to remove my smile.

[Ferdinand]

15 minutes ago, PeterW said:

This is a simple fix. 

 

It's not about the fix; the universe of possibilities requires exploring first. The satisfaction is the journey and the learning experience. ? 

 

 

To me the thing this most resembles is a Fishing Peg on a reservoir, even down to the bank profile - one of those platforms anglers sleep on around fishing lakes. More fun for the onlooker if sloping and greased.

 

eg 

 

These days you can get everlasting recycled plastic ones, probably supplied and installed for <£1000.

 

Ferdinand

 

Edited May 24, 2019 by Ferdinand

[zoothorn]

Fab help chaps, as always. Ooh I want a flippin digger me now. Seriously, if I had the room to store it, & not this 'risky' slope to tumble down..

 

 

[joe90]

2 hours ago, zoothorn said:

No Joe this is different. The prior thread altho has similar 'upright posts' but is a different kettle of fish: that was one idea to support a log cabin at the very end. And is still current. You see its such a HUGELY tricky bit of land all of this lower garden area, especially at the end.

 

I was not suggesting it was suitable for your problem just that it got me thinking about my posts and looking on Ebay. It may be rubbish but fir the price worth a punt.

[zoothorn]

1 hour ago, PeterStarck said:

@zoothorn How many terraces do you want to create between the top and the stream or do you want a single 3.5m high retaining wall leveling off the garden?

 

Well I was thinking -either- my preference plan.. not really terraces in mind Peter. I had these 2 plans only:

 

1] a ~2m (max) high retaining wall to increace width & flatten for a lawn area, halving the slope to stream.. a slimmer walkway next to stream too (I'll do this whichever way I go: far easier, I just copy sod n'bors you can see, in pic 3).

 

Or 2] the walkway instead of retaining wall. Surely hugely less work you see (I can't think how to do the retaining wall anyway, & with a few tons of earth to shift down to fill etc its a huge SIGH every time I muse on it). If walkway proper bolty-solid, like the dune affair, & say 1m wide, it'll sort of do the 'widen-the-lawn area' thing itself (the main goal), albeit wood instead of ground.

 

Once I get the line of posts in on the slopeside.. I'm off & running. The short ass posts on crest-side can be whacked in. Then to cut & fix the wood xyz joisty bits etc.. no sweat (I hope!). Its just choosing the right approach to inserting these posts.

 

 

[zoothorn]

1 hour ago, Onoff said:

 

Where is this walkway going exactly, down next to the stream and following its course? Will there be a stepped section down to a boardwalk?

 

Following the stream course, yes excatly Onoff. But just off the crest of the slope, twds top (so a small step onto boardwalk only).. not down next to stream (well another mini walkway will go here, last job/ easy/ copy twunt n'bor's).

 

The lay of my land isn't easy to see from my photo. So I'll take 3 pics in panorama from opposite side of stream, high up near hedge & post up (pun intended).

[ProDave]

20 minutes ago, zoothorn said:

 

Well I was thinking -either- my preference plan.. not really terraces in mind Peter. I had these 2 plans only:

 

1] a ~2m (max) high retaining wall to increace width & flatten for a lawn area, halving the slope to stream.. a slimmer walkway next to stream too (I'll do this whichever way I go: far easier, I just copy sod n'bors you can see, in pic 3).

 

Or 2] the walkway instead of retaining wall. Surely hugely less work you see (I can't think how to do the retaining wall anyway, & with a few tons of earth to shift down to fill etc its a huge SIGH every time I muse on it). If walkway proper bolty-solid, like the dune affair, & say 1m wide, it'll sort of do the 'widen-the-lawn area' thing itself (the main goal), albeit wood instead of ground.

 

Once I get the line of posts in on the slopeside.. I'm off & running. The short ass posts on crest-side can be whacked in. Then to cut & fix the wood xyz joisty bits etc.. no sweat (I hope!). Its just choosing the right approach to inserting these posts.

 

 

This comes back to what we discussed a while back.  Gabions.

 

You dig out a flat at your half way point of the slope for the gabion baskets to sit on (a little lower so the outside edge of the gaboin is not vunerable to erosion in spate conditions)  Fill the gabion baskets with stones.  Use the excavated soil to fill in between the garden side of the gabion baskets and the lawn.

 

you can also put your timber walkway lower down if you want.

 

You will need to buy the gabion baskets and a lot of stone to fill them, but if you do a scale drawing and work out exactly where and how deep to put them, you should be able to get it so that dig out soil = amount of infill soil needed so no soil to import.

[Onoff]

Sleepers again. if you got a line of these in you could terrace behind them:

 

 

I really would urge you to try a hand dig a test hole to gauge how hard going it is. One, two a day would soon see it done.

 

[zoothorn]

I can't get good photos. Ok I break garden into 3rds, 15m/ 10m /6m lengths. Property only 8m wide, & narrows twds lower end (away from house) to 5m. A brook goes down long side (below sod's walkway). I'm on a high bank, this takes up 3m of width. A fag shape, yellow filter is house bit.

 

Pic 1 = nearest house area one 15m (lawn/ done), & a bit of the middle area two (bit in Q for walkway, or retaining wall).

Pic 2 = mid area two 10m. 

Pic 3 = most of mid area two, & onwards (LHS) down to the trickiest/ narrowest width (& steepest slopes both sides) area three 6m.

[zoothorn]

@ProDave hi there, are you referring to the idea of a retaining wall.. or a base for the walkway?

[newhome]

What do you actually want to do with that end of the garden? That will determine what needs to be done to a degree surely? 

 

[zoothorn]

@Onoff that's an interesting pic.. I was veering twds PeterW's idea of the metal brackets fixed onto a set concrete block, going the walkway plan. But your pic of the retaining wall with sleepers, is the best idea I've seen re. the retaining wall plan.

 

How are those verticals fixed in & depth? my slope ground/ soil is pretty soft & squidgy tbh, hard ground the least thing to worry about.. does that mean I'd need to set the b'stards in deeper then? I guess capillary action sucks brook water up into bank, so could get wetter: things such as this to consider are prime reasons Ive been tentative & not jumped hammer & tongs you see, until I know a sure-as-dammit approach so it'll not shift badly, or even collapse.. that'll be an awful job to ruin lawn top, heave 3 tons of soil out/ up, to redo the pillars etc.

[zoothorn]

9 minutes ago, newhome said:

What do you actually want to do with that end of the garden? That will determine what needs to be done to a degree surely? 

 

 

Make best use of it, simple as. At the mo I occasionally amble down & my n'bor sees unused so whacked his rotten seating area uncompromisingly overlooking both area two & three. So tbh I don't know, but all I can think of is widening the mid area two, & putting something across btm area three, in order to make it useable: a log cabin I was thinking, would surely make best use of the space.. if.. I could logistically seat it across the slope that is.

 

I'm even thinking as the opposite side of brook, area three, is actually unregistered land (sod n'bor's land ends at the big tree bow above buttercups in 3rd pic above: so the bank to the left of it's unregistered).. could I maybe put 2 or 3 telegraph poles across the brook from just on from the tree, sat into the bank?? would -this- be both the surest, & least complicated way to form my cabin base?? it would defo mitigate against stream swell/ & therefore worrying water disturbance of 2 pillars' founds near the stream.. as would be a good 1.5m above brook.

[Muddy]

What about a willow fedge? Willow will love the damp and should hold a metre of ground.

[Onoff]

39 minutes ago, Muddy said:

What about a willow fedge? Willow will love the damp and should hold a metre of ground.

 

Love it. Never heard of "fedge". 

 

https://insteading.com/blog/living-willow-hedges/

[zoothorn]

Yup nice fedge.. but not sure how its gonna help me out-?

 

@Onoff can you run me thru the sleeper uprights, how these were anchored/ in your pic eg-

 

thanks alot for replies & ideas folks- zoot

[Onoff]

9 hours ago, zoothorn said:

Yup nice fedge.. but not sure how its gonna help me out-?

 

@Onoff can you run me thru the sleeper uprights, how these were anchored/ in your pic eg-

 

thanks alot for replies & ideas folks- zoot

 

Look at the picture on the fedge link, immediately under where it says Why A Willow Hedge?

 

You'll see they've formed terraces retained by fedges. The willow saplings of the fedge are woven/criss crossed and are obviously rooted. A super strong, natural retaining wall.

 

A real art by the look of it but not a solution if you want "instant" gratification!

 

As for the sleepers...dig a hole, drop in sleeper. Maybe ram with pea shingle around the sides and bottom rather than concrete.

 

I'd STILL be digging a test hole to assess the ground.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited May 25, 2019 by Onoff