The Forestry Forum

I'm going to burn up some materials I've got on a little shack/shed/cabin sort of thing. One purpose is to practice building on a slope, in preparation for doing so again in the future. Simplicity is a priority. Excavation will be done by hand so will need to be minimal. The footprint of this particular building will be roughly 200 sq. ft.

I don't yet know what kind of foundation I'll choose, and welcome any insights on poles, piers, rocks, etc. as well as anything to do with hillside building, which I have never done. The ground on this property is not rocky, but I foresee the next one being extremely rocky.

Thanks!

Steep slope building is a man killer.
Get plenty of rest,I hope you are young.You will always be fighting gravity.
Best of luck.

I hauled fancy building stone to the builders catering to the richest people hiding in the nanatahala, pisgah, cherokee and chatahoochee national forests.  For that crowd money is no object and they all want a view over water even if its on a steep clay bank.  Shoring with pile drivers is the standard for these must-have-it types that somehow get a building permit. 



There was a metalworking old man i liked a lot who had a pigsty place like me full of dead, recycled and resurrected junk.  Several home made hydraulic pile drivers.  Hed made them for skid steer and mini-ex that he worked either from land or lake barge.  Just hammered stubs of mostly 3" I-beam into the ground at an angle until they were all the way in or hitting ledge.  Then string lined and cut them all off even to build these shoring and retaining walls that houses sat right ontop of.  



Said he billed $300 an hour and was booked his whole life so i guess it worked.  

When you do end up with shallow rock i think it is typical to hammer drill into it and epoxy in rebar rods then tie them into a grid and encapsulate in a concrete pour so that no one section breaks away.  I dont think you want to be driving them into very tight holes by force, as most sandstones anyway will break off along the drill line. That is afterall how you quarry a bank. 

If not worried about code, I would dig down about a 16" diameter hole a foot or so deep and drive a T post or two as deep as possible ( I have a gas power t post driver)  then pour a sackrete pad in the hole then cut off t post either level with pad or if the t post was spaced  correctly you could drill through the t post and screw to the wood foundation post for stability.