Planning a shop on steep terrain - thoughts?

[Oaktree]

Dumb question, but how stable is the soil where you live? That would concern me about building anything on a slope that steep.

Moss Road's thoughts in post #14 seem to make the most sense to me.

 

[MossRoad]

Dumb question, but how stable is the soil where you live? That would concern me about building anything on a slope that steep.

Moss Road's thoughts in post #14 seem to make the most sense to me.

If you look at his house, it's two stories built on the side of a hill. A two story shop built into the side of a hill would be almost identical in construction.

 

[joeyd]

I'm no expert but I was able to but a shop up by digging into a hillside it may not be as steep as yours but your house went in on the same slope. Here are a couple of pictures during the construction.

 

[EddieWalker]

My wife definitely wants to increase the deck area towards the slope/water, and expand the house as I proposed. The lower patio where I store my tractor is the entrance to my 'man cave'. The thought was to expand to the right as it would be easy to just add trusses and scab on to the side of the house and extend the deck in both that direction and towards the camera.

Expanding the size of the house will really add to the cost and scope of the project. Do you need the room? For just a workshop, making your deck bigger would be the most cost effective way that I can see, based on your photo's.

 

[dragoneggs]

Expanding the size of the house will really add to the cost and scope of the project. Do you need the room? For just a workshop, making your deck bigger would be the most cost effective way that I can see, based on your photo's.

Agreed! That is what I’ve been telling my wife. The changes she wants are the most expensive as they involve changing existing structure and roof lines.

 

[EddieWalker]

I can easily see where adding on to the house will cost well over ten times as much as just extending the deck and creating a workshop under it.

 

[Oaktree]

If you look at his house, it's two stories built on the side of a hill. A two story shop built into the side of a hill would be almost identical in construction.

The house looks like a lot of it sits on fill. Big difference between that and building into the side of a hill (which doesn't look practical at this location unless there's an easy way to get to the lower part below the clump of trees on the right).
That was the reason for my question about soil stability...especially after the mudslides California's been having recently. I personally would be very cautious about building on a slope that steep, YMMV.

 

[dragoneggs]

The house looks like a lot of it sits on fill. Big difference between that and building into the side of a hill (which doesn't look practical at this location unless there's an easy way to get to the lower part below the clump of trees on the right).
That was the reason for my question about soil stability...especially after the mudslides California's been having recently. I personally would be very cautious about building on a slope that steep, YMMV.

The house definitely does not sit on fill. It is cut into the hill and the foundation is easily 12ft back from where it was cut back. The middle portion of the house extends out beyond that and you can see the posts supporting it and the two decks on either side.

Our soil just under a lot of forest decay is glacial till and quite stable. Take a look at this cut into the bank nearby when my neighbor had a new retaining wall build last year. I am not too worried about a slide unless we have a massive earthquake.

 

[dragoneggs]

I can easily see where adding on to the house will cost well over ten times as much as just extending the deck and creating a workshop under it.

There really isn't enough real estate to extend the basement space towards the water to create a shop unless I also extend to the side. Even then I think I will not enough.

 

[dragoneggs]

I got out side and did some rough surveying just before dark with a theodolite and a telescoping measuring stick. I roughly figured I could get a max 24ft wide road side and about 40ft deep. But that 40ft after figuring about an 8ft set back from the driveway means about a 16ft drop in elevation! That is a lot to deal with. I was hoping it was closer to 10-12ft so my upper level floor would be close to the road level.

Maybe the earth that I cut out for the foundation can raise the grade on the downhill side a little even if the footings have to be a little deeper to hit bearing soil?

I have a old version of Chief Architect software that I should dust off and sketch something out.