soil terraces

[alan]

The wife wants me to terrace a small 100 foot hillside with about 5 runs.

So I google and find ideas for soil (no retaining wall) contour terracing.

But why do they always say start from the bottom and work the way up? I already started at the top and am on the 1st run working the way down.

What's the difference?

[micky]

For the same reason they say to wash walls starting at the bottom and working up!

[Dean Hoffman]

No clue, but I'm curious how you're deciding where to put the terraces. I ran across this after a really short search. It talks about using an A frame level to mark the terraces path.

Dad had one he called his Walking A. He used it to lay out the lands when plowing. He would flip the Walking A maybe 30 times at one end of the field then put a flag or stake there. Then he'd go to the other end and do the same thing. His smaller Walking A was maybe three feet point to point. It was a measuring tool

[alan]

I'm sorry but I don't see how washing walls is similar to building soil terraces when the terrace itself is just cut soil (no retaining wall).

They always just say to start at the bottom but they never explain why.

I guess what they're worried about is the retaining wall foundation but they never actually say that so it's just my guess since most will use walls.