Hey all, we’re looking at this home and love everything about the house itself, however we have a toddler and another on the way and wanted a usable backyard. About a third of the sloped yard is a stone patio with a retaining wall and sloped grass that’s too steep to really take advantage of. Would leveling this out be a huge pain (don’t care if we keep or remove the patio in the process).
by IrreverentBurrito
11 Comments
Is the fence the property line? You could put up another retaining wall and put the fence on top of it and fill in behind the wall…..
Anything is possible depending on how much $$$ you want to spend.
How many good memories did you have growing up playing on a sloped back yard?
Flat enough for memories and kids 4’ wall in place of fence and about 100-120lf? Then put fence in top layer of block (no cap) you’re looking at 25k min if in non premium area of the country
That’s not getting leveled…. Especially for $15k. And if you level it your will have a cliff at some spot. Is that a stream behind your house or a path? If you have wetlands, there will be even more obstacles.
Levelling that would expensive and unwise. You would need a huge retaining wall either at the edge of the property or at the patio/path.
As someone with a sloped yard and kids under 5, you will use what you have and it will be fine. Play in the flatter areas or go to the park. If the house is a good house, you make it work. If having a perfectly flat soccer field in your backyard is important to you, find a house that has that
They won’t be toddlers forever. You can also create one space with stairs going down and a handrail to a leveled area with grass.
Great spot for a Water feature. Save a lot of labor money by already having the slope for a waterfall.
If you’re near Indiana I can give you a quote.
If you love the house, just work with the backyard as is. Hills are great for kids. Maybe some terracing.
But the complications of leveling will have consequences and the 15k budget is woefully under budget for a job this size.
I had a suuuuper sloped backyard as a kid, when we moved in my folks added fill in two levels with steep banks. No retaining wall that way. It was kick ass to roll down the hill from the top level to the bottom, and sledding was awesome (as long as you managed to stop). You’re overthinking this, kids will find a way to have fun outside no matter how level it is. It’s not mount everest!
Instead of a single massive leveling job, you could build terraced retaining walls to create a couple of flat, distinct tiers for the kids to play on. This setup lets you keep the existing patio while adding a safe lower play zone with a fun built-in hill slide. I usually use Gardenly to visualize my ideas, maybe give it a try – [https://gardenly.app](https://gardenly.app)