Here's How to Build on a Sloping Site

Table of Content

• #2 Modern Cliffhanger Residence by Jon and Gill Flewers in Malvern Hills, England
• The Disadvantages Of Building On A Hill
• Why Do You Think Do Some People Build Their Houses On A Slope?
• Pelosi on McCarthy calling omnibus ‘one of the most shameful acts’ he’s seen in House: ‘Had he forgotten Jan. 6?’
• Building on a Slope: What It Means for Your Log Home

This gets a little complicated, but suffice it to say that when you have an exposed slope beneath a newly built home, it looks unsightly from a distance. But when properly screened, the home will blend into the mountain environment, while still affording the homeowner a mountain view. If the sewer system is uphill from the site, you may need to have a pumping system installed.

A tiny home can be constructed on a slope using the cut and fill method, where part of the slope is excavated and the material used to level a portion of the slope for building. It can be built on stilts or natural anchor points such as trees, rocks, or nestled into a hill. If you’re comfortable with the added requirements, such as consulting with a geotechnical engineer, and you really want a jaw-dropping view, the answer is yes. But even so, we highly recommend working with a builder that has experience building on a slope and is familiar with working with engineering plans.

#2 Modern Cliffhanger Residence by Jon and Gill Flewers in Malvern Hills, England

Most sloping sites offer some sort of view, if only because you are suddenly lifted off the ground hovering above everything around you. Standing on the inside of this house, surrounded by floor-to-ceiling glass, you would be able to sense the outside landscape and the mesmerising presence of the water. The wonderful thing about being inside a home that has been built on a sloping site is that you can feel as if you are floating high above the ground below with a bird’s eye view of the world. This is essentially the difference between building on a flat piece of ground where you are set among other homes and grounded. It’s a feeling that can be exhilarating and accentuated by cantilevering part of the house into the sky as the designers at Clever Design have done, which, under my classification, is a type-two home. This cantilever allows you to not only appreciate the sensation of floating in mid air, but also allows you to appreciate and feel the sloping landscape below.

This can be a much more cost-effective method than cut and fill and can also open up the realm of possibilities for home placement, such as building out over trees or water. After you’ve found the hill of your dreams, take a good look at where it makes the most sense to carve out a space for a home. Where will the built structure meld most elegantly with the natural environment? Does this also align with the project’s other goals, such as orientation for solar and views? With this method, one end of the house is built into the side of the hill with standard foundations, and the forward part of the house over the slope is supported with stilts.

The Disadvantages Of Building On A Hill

Roofs built adjacent to a hill can result in entire expanses of occupiable vegetated landscapes. The entire footprint of this house, initially borrowed from the hillside, has been restored on the roof. One is that the hill may be unstable and could collapse on the house. Another is that the hill may be too steep to build on, making it difficult to get to the front door or windows. There may also be drainage issues, as water may not be able to properly drain away from the house. There are a few things to consider when deciding if it is safe to build a house on a hill.

Perhaps the best way to ensure your hillside home is protected from disaster is to design and build a custom house from scratch. Engineers and graders in Asheville are typically experts in designing and installing retaining walls. Even moderately sloping lots may still need a short retaining wall to hold back a slope, or to hold up a driveway.

Why Do You Think Do Some People Build Their Houses On A Slope?

First they wanted to make sure it was the best choice for our family. To me, that shows they care about more than just their company’s gain and profit. In fact, without their help we wouldn’t have even been able to build. After persistently researching for weeks, we decided that we wanted Turner and Son Homes to build our forever home.

Typically houses on hills are built with a flat roof to take advantage of the highest allowed building heights by city regulations; leaving the roof a great place for a patio or a green roof. Turner and Son backed us up 100% by helping foot some of the court costs as well as standing by our sides as we went in front of the city. They helped turn around this hiccup in our home-building experience and we were able to come up with an agreement with the city. Once this was resolved, they began the building process and have kept us involved step by step. It has been very exciting to be a part of the building process each day.

Seven Quick Tips for Success When Building on a Slope

However, there are a vast array of design elements to consider, other than the slope of the land, which can create a sense of place and convey special meaning. Let’s take a look at some design solutions that you may want to consider on your sloping land. Caisson are structures built of rebar and concrete that we build on site. The cages make up the frame of the caisson, and are craned into the holes, where the concrete is then poured using the whole as a form for the concrete.

On a steep slope, retaining walls can be impressive, and the costs can get expensive. But, if building on a slope results in tangible selling features (a view!), then the added construction costs can pay off. As one might expect, hillside homes built on steep slopes can be more vulnerable to mudslides and flooding if poorly protected. This vulnerability might increase home insurance premiums, writes Connie Thompson in her article “Live on or near a hillside in the soggy Northwest?

We promise great service, solid and seasoned technical assistance, tremendous choice, and the best value in new home designs available anywhere. This rocky landscape provides the inspiration for the design of this home perched high on a hill. You can easily determine your home site’s slope with some string, a tape measure and an inexpensive “string level”—a small level vial that hangs from the string and is available from hardware stores. Simply stake one end of the string and measure off a distance down the slope with it. Hold the string taut and level and measure the distance from the string and the ground.

Cut and fillrefers to the process of leveling out the ground for the foundation by adding soil, removing it, or both. Soil may be brought in to “fill” the plot and make it level, or it can be dug (“cut”) from the slope and either trucked out or used to shore up retaining walls for the home. Depending on the grade, soil conditions, and other factors, cutting and filling can make construction multiple times more expensive than that for a home on a flat site. Building on steep land almost always involves building on a basement.

Before building the retaining wall we need to anchor it into bedrock. So our surveyor will mark the locations where we will drill the hole into bedrock for our caissons, and our drill rig will come out and drill the holes for the caissons. It’s important to make sure that you can safely access the drill site with the drill rig so a progressive grading and compacting plan is imperative in assuring the safe access to the drill site. If it weren’t for all of Athena’s efforts in our home building process, we wouldn’t have a new home!

Little is given away in regards to the complexity of the home beyond the façade, except for a picture window. The contrast in colour between the natural green grass cascading down to the driveway and the timber form is what makes this home resemble a composed picture. This sectional view of the same house clearly shows the difference between the two types with the three-storey component at the rear. You’ll create a great view with an additional room, instead of an underused crawl space, and without enlarging your home’s footprint. A raised concrete foundation will allow for a crawl space underneath that can be good for storage. Think like Mr. Wright did and consider making your home part of the land, not just built on it.

Building on a Slope: What It Means for Your Log Home

It’s actually quite common for homes to be built on a steep slope in Western North Carolina. We have a lot of sloping land and many lots that lie above 2500 feet elevation. Many of these areas are very wooded and have a natural feel, which is quite different than the urban infill lots that are typically found within the city of Asheville. A vacation home hidden amongst trees along the coast of Navidad, Chile, Till House is a contemporary beach home designed by Chilean architects WMR Arquitectos. In her article “Chilean Beach House Offers Complete Privacy for Distraction-Free Vacationing” for My Modern Met, Sara Barnes details the build and the firm that designed it.