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I’m just a beginner and wanting to add a garden ramp in our sloping backyard. A ramp might work better than steps as our son loves riding his bike and we will have better access for the mower to the grass once we add retaining walls in. My questions are:
1. Is this a good idea?
2. what materials. Due to the landscape is crushed granite not an option? Will we have to go decking?
3. ideal slope degree?
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community @yasmina. It's wonderful to have you join us, and many thanks for your question about creating a ramp.
You might like to provide a little more info to our helpful members on what your future goals are for this area so they can better understand the project at hand. A little sketch of your landscaping would be helpful.
It sounds like you might intend to run a retaining wall across the yard and level the area. A ramp would certainly be an option, and you'd run retaining walls on its sides. Crushed granite could be used to surface it, but if the slope is too steep, I'd expect it to run away in heavy rains. These Pebblelock pavers can help resolve that issue by locking the pebbles in place.
What will the height of the retaining wall be, and how much distance in front of it do you have to create your ramp? Ideally, a ramp should be around a 1:14 slope for accessibility reasons, and that is the requirement for public spaces according to codes. For private residences, the requirements might not be mandatory, but it would be best to use the codes as a baseline and check with your local council for more information.
Please let me know if you have any questions.
Mitchell
I’ll attach a couple of pictures (not great). The brown will be extended pavers. The white will be a retaining wall less than one metre, probably closer to 600mm so we can use it as seating too. The red arrows show where we are thinking of building stairs (right side) or a ramp (left side).
Because I’m unfamiliar with terminology etc. is 1:14 where for every 14m the slope increases by 1m? I’ve been looking at pebble lock. Is the geotextile under it meant to be permeable? So that water can somewhat seep through? Can you do crushed granite with pebble lock? That doesn’t sound right does it? And then at the base of the slope I was thinking of running that grate and channel drain all the way along the base of the retaining wall. So am guessing I’d just continue it along along the base of the ramp where it meets the pavers. Maybe it wouldn’t work with pebbles because they’d wash into the grate?
Hello @yasmina
Welcome to the Bunnings Workshop community. It's sensational to have you join us, and thanks for sharing your question about your outdoor garden ramp.
I agree with your analysis regarding the crushed granite and pebbles, they will get washed away into the drain at the bottom. Have you considered using pavers to create the ramp? This would work well with your idea of placing a grate and channel at the bottom of the ramp to catch any water flowing off the ramp.
Another option is to create long landing steps made of pavers going up the slope, think of it as long mini steps. The advantage of this is that it will prevent water from rushing towards the bottom of the slope.
One other way is to make it out of cement and colour it with oxide so that it blends in with the surroundings. But this is more of a long-term installation and is difficult to remove and modify.
Pebble lock is a fantastic product, but I don't recommend using it on a slope with small pebbles or crushed granite where it might get washed away in the rain.
Here are some handy step-by-step guides:
- How to build a retaining wall
- How to pave a pathway (the techniques used are applicable to your project)
If you have any other questions we can help with, please let us know.
Eric
