I have a hill in my backyard i want to get a backhoe and scoop out a few tons of dirt and flatten the land.?

Question

Will i then need to build a retaining wall as part of the hill will remain on the neighbors property? looking for anyone with experience on flattening out hilly terrain. Costs, techniques, etc.

Answer 1

Yes I believe you would need a retaining wall to keep the dirt higher up from moving down into your yard.  

If I were you I would be doing a lot of research on the best way to build a retaining wall...  You probably need it go be wider at the base and have extend further into the hill than the front.  

You most likely need a bull dozer to move the dirt... to get a smoother yard.  Then a back hoe to load the dirt into a truck to haul away.

Another way of getting flatter terrain and probably cheaper than making the whole of it flat would be to terrace the ground.  Making flat a strip then stepping down a bit and making another flat strip....

Answer 2

I'm not a pro dirt man..........but why don't you terrace it with flower bed just like steps....3' up then 6' Get yourself some rocks.......and a few each day.......roses...flowers rasberries strawberries, garden in season.......you name it....or can change it (parts of it.........rock walk stiairs or winding trail......you can still take a lot of dirt.........and also have a beautiful yard......water way...man made....pump it up....let it fall back down.......have fun......it's all beautiful......don't  have to do it in 5 min.   enjoy

Answer 3

Yeah, you will need a retaining wall, unless the neighbor wants their land flattened as well.  You can sometimes get someone to just come and take the dirt away by advertizing it as "clean fill dirt" because people want to fill holes in their land more often than they want to level hills.  Otherwise it will cost at least a few hundred for someone to come and loosen it up and take it away, then it will be maybe $5000 for a retaining wall, depending on the size.  But you can also get those bricks made for do-it-yourself retaining and use those to build the retaining wall youself, which will save you some money.