#14
Working between my house & shed, which are 22” apart. The shed was there when I bought the house in '97. Had termites in the shed several years back, trying to keep the soil away from it. I need to raise the soil level against the house and not have the soil encroach the bottom of the shed. I had 4” landscape edging there, but it is not holding the soil and the edging is not deep enough in the soil and is laying over. I also need air movement under the shed and I have 1/4” hardware cloth around the perimeter to keep critters out.

I’m thinking maybe taller metal edging (6”) or narrow stone. If narrow stone, do I dig a trench and lay the stones in a bed of concrete? I’ve not done any stone/mortar work except minor tuck pointing brick and installed a dry stack interlocking short retaining wall. This work would be hidden, doesn’t have to be pretty, just functional and stable. I think I'll end up at the same place with taller metal edging, so I think stone or some sort of very stable barrier is needed.

It needs to be about 6” or 8” tall and be stable enough to walk on or step on either side of it. I’ve pictured some narrow lueders stone that will work, prolly stacked two high, just not sure how to make it stable.

Here are some pics.
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#15
Here’s a pic of the stone that may work. I didn’t see how it was installed. There is mortar in between the stones. I have done floor tile work, am familiar with that.
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#16
(08-01-2020, 05:59 PM)chrisntam Wrote: Working between my house & shed, which are 22” apart. I need to raise the soil level against the house and not have the soil encroach the bottom of the shed. I had 4” landscape edging there, but it is not holding the soil and laying over.   I need air movement under the shed and I have 1/4” hardware cloth around the perimeter to keep critters out.

I’m thinking maybe taller metal edging (6”) or narrow stone. If narrow stone, do I dig a trench and lay the stones in a bed of concrete?  I’ve not done any stone/mortar work except minor tuck pointing brick and installed a dry stack interlocking short retaining wall. It’s hidden, doesn’t have to be pretty

It needs to be about 6” or 8” tall and be stable enough to walk on.   I’ve pictured some narrow leuters stone that will work, prolly stacked two high, just not sure how to make it stable.

Here are some pics.

Maybe I'm missing something... but why?  Looks?
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#17
(08-01-2020, 06:06 PM)KC Wrote: Maybe I'm missing something... but why?  Looks?

We live on clay soil in Dallas, the soil between the house & shed is very dry, need to raise the soil level so the foundation doesn't move up and down as much. Think of the higher soil level against the house as insulation (soil won't dry out as fast and shrink), the thicker (higher) the better.  I need to water the foundation to lift (soil will expand) it back up and I don't want soil migrating under the shed, inviting termites back.

Kinda need to build a "moat" around the shed, keeping soil from creeping under it, but only on the house side and a bit in the front and back of the shed.
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#18
(08-01-2020, 06:14 PM)chrisntam Wrote: We live on clay soil in Dallas, the soil between the house & shed is very dry, need to raise the soil level so the foundation doesn't move up and down as much. Think of the higher soil level against the house as insulation (soil won't dry out as fast and shrink), the thicker (higher) the better.  I need to water the foundation to lift (soil will expand) it back up and I don't want soil migrating under the shed, inviting termites back.

Kinda need to build a "moat" around the shed, keeping soil from creeping under it, but only on the house side and a bit in the front and back of the shed.

So your problem is that water in the soil evaporates in the Texas heat.  The loss of mass in the soil causes the soil to “shrink”, causing your foundation to move.

Your solution is to try to keep the soil from getting hot enough to cause the water to evaporate.
Mmmmmm....

Consider instead not to let the water vapor escape.
Consider digging down a few inches, placing a watering type hose down (maybe inside a perf pipe), then laying several uninterrupted layers of reinforced 8mil or thicker visqueen, covering with a decorative landscape rock.  You can add as much rock as you want without worrying about it going through that hardware cloth
The hose will let you add moisture if the need arises.

We did similar, sans the hose, around the foundation to our basement.  We had a wet corner. Ours was designed to keep rain water away from our soil.  It worked well, no moisture in our basement for 30 years.  Twenty years after installing it we had need to dig down the foundation wall.  The top layer of plastic was dried and brittle, the underlying layers were no different than the day we installed it.

But the interesting thing was the top 10-12 inches of the ground was extremely wet.  He plastic had stopped the soil from drying out. 
That may work for you.
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#19
The foundation has dropped allowing this separation.
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#20
Interesting idea.  One issue I see with that is I won't be able to tell when the soil is dry and when to soak the soil except when the brick starts to separate from the trim.  I also won't be able to monitor how wet it is since it's covered up.  Interesting idea though, it did pique my interest.

We use soaker hoses around the foundations here, the soils expand when wet and shrink when dry, so much that doors and windows become hard to open/close.  After a period of dry weather, we turn the soaker hoses on so the soil around the perimeter of the house doesn't dry out and the foundation settle.  Some settling is inevitable though.

I took a trip to the borg this evening, I'll prolly just do an interlocking dry set retaining wall, about two blocks tall.  No concrete work, no mortar, easy.  Just dig a trench about 4" below grade, level with paver base, dry set the pre-fab blocks on the base, I'll use construction adhesive for the 2nd layer.  That's what I', leaning towards currently, except that it'll be a little wider than I would like.
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#21
I'm assuming that the shed floor is wood setting on piers or treated wood foundation. Certainly not the easiest solution but, best in the long term, would be to raise the level of the shed by building up the foundation. You had termites partly because it is too low and close to the ground. By raising it up, you will solve two problems at once; allowing more backfill against the house and help prevent a recurrence of the termite problem.
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#22
I believe the gentleman from Alabama is correct, I hadn't looked at it from that perspective, the over riding issue is that the shed is too low.  You are also correct, wood floor on 4 x 4 treated piers, set in concrete. 

It's a nice looking shed (though I've outgrown it), recently replaced floor, replaced rotted/termite damaged siding and trim, along with new, two color paint.

I won't raise it at this point, I'll build a little retaining wall for now, which will buy some add'l time...
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#23
If you are looking for just a temporary solution, I would get some galvanized sheet metal and put it into the ground and against the shed up to the height you need. Nail and caulk it well at the top. It should hold up for a couple of years.
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Suggestions needed for narrow retaining walll


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