Enclosure with a hill

[Turtle1173]

Hi all,
I am at the beginning stages of building an outdoor enclosure. I plan to keep either 3 toed box turtles or ornate. Both of these are naturally close to where I live but not native to my state. Anyway my selected location will be an area that backs up against my garage. After extending away from the garage 10’ or so there is a hill. I would like my enclosure to be larger than 10 feet long so it necessitates continuing up the hill some. I haven’t decided how far up I’m going to go. It might just be another 5 feet. What I’m having difficulty with is trying to think through the construction of this enclosure. Originally I was going to bury some 8” bricks and then proceed to run a couple of stacked 2x10’s around. However, this obviously won’t work when coming to an incline. So how do I do this? I’ve done some searching and this isn’t talked about too much. The only thing I’ve seen that might work so far is running boards vertically into the ground. This would allow me to keep the right enclosure height while still going up a hill. It seems like there should be an easier way though. Thoughts and/or suggestions?

Thank you
Shane

 

[Maro2Bear]

Greetings

If you can take a picture of your area it will help. Interlocking Stacked landscaping blocks often work well in areas like this. But it will be easier to help with a pix.

Good luck

 

[EllieMay]

I have a lot of hills around my place... I decided to stagger or stair step where necessary to keep an even look with my fence. This gate area was the steepest hill. The boards are drove into the landscape about 3”.

In the back, it was a slighter slope so I was able to drop a couple inches every 10’ (where it was needed) at the posts.

If your hills are very steep, you may have to cut your 2x10 to a shorter length so you can follow the hill...

Also, these pictures are unfinished. The gate area is not complete . I just wanted to give you an idea about the hill

 

[Tom]

Your idea of vertical planks will work.

I make my enclosures out of slumpstone block. I go three blocks high and use half blocks to stagger the middle row. This is an easy way to get up and down the hill.

 

[Turtle1173]

This is the area I’m looking at. It’s hard to see the fullness of the slope. Hopefully other pictures help.


This is on the hill looking down at the area I’m talking about.


This is a little more of a ground level view.


This is backed away from it some to see a little further the layout of the hill.

Thank you all so much for your suggestions and help!

Shane

 

[Yvonne G]

I would see if I could find some used redwood pickets and make the vertical board fence. You can set 4x4 stubs every 8' then a 2x4 across to the 4x4s. Then attach the pickets to the 2x4s. It would go uphill nicely and be an attractive fence. If you use redwood, you can scrape away the dirt at the bottom of each picket so it fits down into the ground, not leaving an open space for the turtles to see out.

My first box turtle fence was grape stakes. It was an attractive fence, but I kept having escapees, so I changed to horizontal corral lumber. But that doesn't go uphill nicely.

 

[Turtle1173]

I went to Lowe’s and Home Depot today to look around. I did find the dog eared pickets, like in the above picture. We don’t have redwood in my area. I grew up in CA so I know how nice that would be. They had cedar and then some that wasn’t labeled, so probably just pine.




I looked at the stone also. I really like the look of that. It’s a bit overwhelming trying to figure out how many boards and/or stones I would need to make this work.

Thanks again for the help. I probably need to get some definite measurements. Then I can do the math.

Shane

 

[Turtle1173]

Well I went out and took a few measurements. That way you all can get a better idea of the space. My thought is to extend it another 5 feet on length and width. That would make it approx. 15’x19’. By extending the width, I’ll have a much better view from my house and they will get more sun.

 

[ascott]

Well I went out and took a few measurements. That way you all can get a better idea of the space. My thought is to extend it another 5 feet on length and width. That would make it approx. 15’x19’. By extending the width, I’ll have a much better view from my house and they will get more sun.

View attachment 266522

Okay so, this is likely not anything you are talking about but here goes....I see a roof like that comes to a point....where the 10 foot by 14 foot meet in the middle and this is an area that will become a water siv....so lots of water into to the space if it rains...perhaps install some rain gutters to rout the water away from the corner space? There is also some plumbing that I see in the same corner...I would make sure that the pipes are covered to assure not split pipe/ flooding in the cold freezing temps? I also see a window unit that will have water/condensation run off ?

Where exactly will you place housing? add earth to create a Hill to allow for elevation?

 

[Turtle1173]

Okay so, this is likely not anything you are talking about but here goes....I see a roof like that comes to a point....where the 10 foot by 14 foot meet in the middle and this is an area that will become a water siv....so lots of water into to the space if it rains...perhaps install some rain gutters to rout the water away from the corner space? There is also some plumbing that I see in the same corner...I would make sure that the pipes are covered to assure not split pipe/ flooding in the cold freezing temps? I also see a window unit that will have water/condensation run off ?

Where exactly will you place housing? add earth to create a Hill to allow for elevation?

It’s probably not the easiest to see but there are gutters on the roof. You can probably see a downspout on the far left. The plumbing was something done before we ever moved here. It would be non functional now, as water is no longer routed to this garage. I will be either getting rid of them or covering them up some way. The air unit is run occasionally in the summer, as that garage houses my boat and workshop area. I can’t imagine some cool water would be a bad thing in the small amounts it would be. But I could be wrong.

Not real sure on the housing yet. I was thinking of something in that corner but maybe also something that would go into the side of the hill. Any suggestions?

 

[ascott]

It’s probably not the easiest to see but there are gutters on the roof. You can probably see a downspout on the far left. The plumbing was something done before we ever moved here. It would be non functional now, as water is no longer routed to this garage. I will be either getting rid of them or covering them up some way. The air unit is run occasionally in the summer, as that garage houses my boat and workshop area. I can’t imagine some cool water would be a bad thing in the small amounts it would be. But I could be wrong.

Not real sure on the housing yet. I was thinking of something in that corner but maybe also something that would go into the side of the hill. Any suggestions?

Fricken sweet to all of your replies ....as far as the housing suggestions, just up and not in a flood situation

 

[Turtle1173]

I’m thinking about going with these retaining bricks. They are half price and are 16” long by 6” tall. I figured I could stack them 3 high, alternate the spacing and maybe even put the corresponding cap stone on it. Thoughts?

 

[Turtle1173]

So, if I go with this retaining brick, I will do 2 stacks and then the capstone. The capstone is another 3” so the height will total out at 15 inches. I’m trying to figure out how many bricks to order. So this is me “thinking out loud.” My pen will be roughly 15’x20’. Thats a perimeter of 70’. My garage sides total 24’. That leaves 46’, which totals 552 inches. Each brick is 16 inches, so that totals 34.5 bricks. So my total should be 70 bricks and 35 capstones. I’ll probably order a couple extra of each just to have them. Anything I’m missing or that I’m not factoring correctly?

Thanks for enduring...

 

[ascott]

So, if I go with this retaining brick, I will do 2 stacks and then the capstone. The capstone is another 3” so the height will total out at 15 inches. I’m trying to figure out how many bricks to order. So this is me “thinking out loud.” My pen will be roughly 15’x20’. Thats a perimeter of 70’. My garage sides total 24’. That leaves 46’, which totals 552 inches. Each brick is 16 inches, so that totals 34.5 bricks. So my total should be 70 bricks and 35 capstones. I’ll probably order a couple extra of each just to have them. Anything I’m missing or that I’m not factoring correctly?

Thanks for enduring...

I would just make sure that the height is at least 3 times the height of the tort if it were vertical....and also be careful on how you stack, so as not to make a ladder where each brick connects/stacks onto the next....

 

[Turtle1173]

Well my son and I picked up 72 retaining wall bricks and 37 cap stones. Each brick weighs 42 lbs. Including the cap stones we unloaded 4,400 lbs. I’m looking forward to getting started on the enclosure this next week!

 

[Turtle1173]

Here’s most of my bricks that I’ve been working on this week. It’s a bunch!

 

[Momof4]

How exciting! I know that was a lot of work!!

 

[EllieMay]

It’s going to look great! That was a good price on the stones too.

 

[Turtle1173]

Here’s a sneak peak. I did all this with time lapse photos, so I’m going to try and get a video together soon!

 

[Maro2Bear]

Looking nice.