He Spent 400 Hours Reshaping an 8-Foot Backyard Slope and Turned It Into Usable Terraces
A steep backyard can leave plenty of ground without providing much space for a patio, seating, or level lawn. This yard dropped about eight feet from the rear fence to the house, leaving a long slope broken up by concrete steps.
Reddit user u/MrKota kept the elevation change and divided it into terraces. Soil came out by hand, gabion walls held each new level, gravel replaced mud near the house, and wood caps turned sections of the retaining walls into seating.
Equipment could not reach the backyard because access involved a steep six-foot incline and steps. The project took about a year and a half and more than 400 hours of the homeowner’s labor. Materials cost about $11,000, while he estimated hiring the work could have reached about $75,000.
Soil Comes Out to Create the First Flat Level
Excavation starts at the bottom of the slope near the existing concrete steps. Cutting into the hill creates a vertical soil face and opens a flat strip where the yard had dropped toward the house.
Without equipment access, dirt had to move through the property in buckets and a wheelbarrow. The homeowner describes carrying rock in buckets up the stairs before transferring it to a wheelbarrow and says he broke about a dozen Lowe’s buckets during the work.
Excavation Extends Across the Width of the Yard
The cut continues across the slope until the lower section becomes a broad level area. Existing concrete steps remain in place while soil disappears from both sides.
Exposed clay shows how much earth separated the lower yard from the grass above. Rather than removing the full eight-foot elevation change, the excavation concentrates that change at defined retaining walls.
Two Cuts Divide One Slope Into Separate Levels
A second cut farther down creates another vertical face. The yard now has distinct elevations instead of one continuous incline from fence to house.
The eight-foot change in elevation remains. As the homeowner explained, the yard still drops about eight feet, except the change now happens in tiers.
Gravel Creates a Base at the Bottom of the Slope
Landscape fabric and crushed stone cover the excavated lower level. The gravel creates a flat surface where exposed soil and runoff had made the area difficult to use.
Drainage was part of the project from the start. Gabions allow water through their rock-filled structure, and the homeowner also installed drainage behind the walls.
Gabion Cages Replace the Exposed Soil Faces
Steel mesh cages line the cuts before stone fills them. The cages establish the dimensions of the retaining walls and wrap around corners to follow each terrace.
The main retaining walls use gabions about 21 inches thick. Lower walls and bench sections measure about 15 inches thick because those sections do not retain the same volume of soil.
Stone Fills Each Cage Instead of Forming a Block Wall
Rock fills the gabions section by section, turning the wire cages into retaining walls. The homeowner chose gabions instead of a standard modular concrete-block system and ordered the cages from Gabion1 after failing to find the heavy-gauge construction he wanted nearby.
He used 5-gauge cages for the walls and 4-gauge cages for the steps. Internal bracing helps keep the filled cages from bowing.
Visible Stones Are Positioned by Hand
The finished wall faces have packed rows of stone instead of rocks projecting through the wire. That surface comes from placing the visible stones rather than dumping the entire load into each cage.
The homeowner faced the exposed sides by hand and filled the hidden portions without the same arrangement. He says this consumed a large share of the gabion work, but dumping all the stone would have produced large gaps and a rougher wall face.
Gabion Steps Connect the New Elevations
Stone-filled cages also replace the original concrete stair arrangement at the new terrace. Individual gabion sections stack into steps between the gravel floor and the level above.
Wood treads begin covering the wire tops, creating a flat walking surface while leaving the stone visible from the front.
Wood Caps Turn Retaining Walls Into Seating
Pressure-treated lumber runs across the gabion walls and wraps the corners. Wider sections create bench-height surfaces around the lower gathering area.
To secure the wood, the homeowner placed 4×4 posts inside the cages before closing them. He attached 2x4s to those posts around the cage tops, then fastened decking boards to the framing. Getting the wood level across the stone-filled structures was one of the harder parts of the build.
New Stairs Replace the Route Through the Slope
Wood treads finish the gabion staircase between the lower gravel terrace and the upper yard. Another stair run appears across the yard, giving each level a direct connection to the next.
The retaining system now handles more than soil. Gabion cages form walls and stair bases, while wood provides treads, wall caps, and places to sit.
Upper Yard Returns to Lawn Above the Stone Wall
Once soil work ends, grass returns across the upper terrace. The former incline becomes a level lawn while the gabion wall holds the elevation change at its edge.
A wood cap runs across the wall, separating grass above from the lower terrace. The yard still reaches the same height at the rear fence, but the climb now happens through walls and stairs rather than across sloping ground.
Lower Terrace Becomes a Gravel Gathering Space
Chairs occupy the gravel terrace where the slope once reached toward the house. Wood-topped walls surround the space on several sides, and stairs connect it to the lawn and planting areas above.
The homeowner says the yard had been a muddy space with drainage problems and little practical use. After the work, the drainage problem was addressed and the lower section became a place to sit instead of ground to cross on the way uphill.
Eight Feet of Elevation Now Happens in Terraces
The original yard had concrete steps running through an uninterrupted slope. The finished layout keeps the same rise while dividing it among flat surfaces, gabion retaining walls, stairs, lawn, and a gravel seating area.
More than 400 hours of hand excavation, stone placement, drainage work, cage assembly, and carpentry went into changing where that elevation occurs. The slope did not disappear. It became the structure of the backyard.
All image credits go to Reddit user u/MrKota.