Securing the slope with gabions – preparing the ground with the excavator

In order to be able to further expand the entrance area to the estate agent’s office with its small decorative gabion wall and to finally be able to offer parking spaces, an approx. 25 meter long earth slope is to be built narrower and higher.

I will build a new gabion wall to secure the slope.

I had already written some introductory thoughts in another article.

As became apparent during the construction of the gabion wall on the slope, the project grew bigger and bigger over time. In the end, it was a matter of over 30 meters of slope stabilization with a height difference of up to 2 meters.

The old slope is being rebuilt

The practical work finally began in November 2019. But before I could install the gabion wall to secure the slope, I first had to build the slope back.

The slope had partly grown naturally and partly been filled in over the years. To get the desired width below the slope, I had to build the slope back by 2 to 3 meters before I could place the gabion retaining wall in front of it.

With the amount of earth, I didn’t even need to start with a shovel. I also had to think about where to take the excavated material. Disposal would have cost more than the entire gabion wall.

So my plan was to remove the slope with heavy equipment and refill the excavated material further up.

Gabionen 1000 x 1000 x 500 x 4,5 mm, Steinkorb Gabionenkorb enge Front*

by Drahtwaren Driller GmbH

• Gabionenkorb * Breite 1000 mm * Höhe 1000 mm * Tiefe 500 mm
• Frontgittergröße 1000 x 1000 mm * Maschenweite 50 x 100 mm * Drahtstärke 4,5 mm
• Maschenweite der restlichen Gitter 100 x 100 mm * Drahtstärke 4,5 mm
• Verbindungsart * Spiralverbindung
• Ausführung Galfan (95% Zink, 5% Alu)

 Price: € 60.08 Jetzt auf Amazon kaufen*

Preis inkl. MwSt., zzgl. Versandkosten

Zuletzt aktualisiert am 26. July 2024 um 04:30 . Ich weise darauf hin, dass sich hier angezeigte Preise inzwischen geändert haben können. Alle Angaben ohne Gewähr. (*) Bei den verwendeten Produktlinks handelt es sich um Affiliate Links. Ich bin nicht der Verkäufer des Produktes. Als Amazon-Partner verdiene ich an qualifizierten Verkäufen. Dein Preis ändert sich jedoch nicht.

Excavator driving for beginners

I borrowed a mini excavator for this on two weekends. This is no longer a problem, even for the layman, thanks to local providers. This option is also quite interesting in terms of price.

In addition to an hourly model in which the operating hours are billed, a flat-rate model is also used. In both cases, the diesel fuel consumed was added.

In the end, I paid around 250 euros gross per excavator or per weekend.

Proper instruction was given for both mini excavators. I’d briefly driven an excavator before, but I’d never done a proper excavation as it was now planned.

But after a short period of familiarization with the controls, I didn’t want to give the excavator back.

I would have loved to keep the 5.3 ton excavator in particular. But unfortunately that wasn’t possible.

Video – Excavating on the gabion slope

I accompanied the entire project“Slope stabilization with gabions in the garden” with my camera.

You can admire my excavator operator skills in the following video on preparing the ground with the mini excavator.

If you want to see more of me and my projects, feel free to check out my YouTube channel.

Large mini excavator vs. small mini excavator

I have to admit that I had a lot of fun driving the excavator. However, the general conditions were rather suboptimal. The days of rain made it increasingly difficult to dig up the clay soil efficiently.

The earth was constantly sticking in the excavator shovel so that the amount of earth excavated effectively became smaller and smaller. Scraping the clay soil out of the excavator shovel with the spade also worked more badly than well.

My biggest problem, however, was that the small mini-excavator with an operating weight of 2.5 tons was no match for the heavy soil. It constantly lifted the excavator, especially when pulling the bucket through the ground.

The deeper I dug into the slope, the more I moved the excavator itself rather than the earth when lifting the excavator shovel.

I therefore rented a 5.3 ton excavator for the second weekend. That was a completely different weight class. I was then able to work really effectively with this mini excavator.

Gabionen 1000 x 500 x 500 x 4,5 mm, Steinkorb Gabionenkorb eng komplett*

by Drahtwaren Driller GmbH

• Gabionenkorb * Breite 1000 mm * Höhe 500 mm * Tiefe 500 mm
• Frontgittergröße 1000 x 500 mm * Maschenweite 50 x 100 mm * Drahtstärke 4,5 mm
• Maschenweite der restlichen Gitter 50 x 100 mm * Drahtstärke 4,5 mm
• Verbindungsart * Spiralverbindung
• Ausführung Galfan (95% Zink, 5% Alu)

 Price: € 47.66 Jetzt auf Amazon kaufen*

Preis inkl. MwSt., zzgl. Versandkosten

Zuletzt aktualisiert am 26. July 2024 um 04:30 . Ich weise darauf hin, dass sich hier angezeigte Preise inzwischen geändert haben können. Alle Angaben ohne Gewähr. (*) Bei den verwendeten Produktlinks handelt es sich um Affiliate Links. Ich bin nicht der Verkäufer des Produktes. Als Amazon-Partner verdiene ich an qualifizierten Verkäufen. Dein Preis ändert sich jedoch nicht.

The base for the gabions is prepared

It took me a good 2 days to remove the slope piece by piece and pile up the excavated material at the later curve. I also used some of the soil to level out the entire area.

I repeatedly smoothed out the soil with the blade of the excavator and removed excess soil or filled it up in other places.

I finished on time on a Friday evening. Just right, because the following night it rained heavily again and the exposed clay soil turned into a muddy field. It was no longer possible to work here.

But I could live with that, after all the slope had been built back and the ground had been smoothed. And as long as the rain that followed for weeks didn’t wash down the rest of the slope, everything was fine and I could start building the stone baskets.