Pizza Oven Project - Excavation Continues - Dry-Fitting Timber - March 2025

I continue to find small bits of time to excavate and prep the ground in front of the pizza oven slab.  After work, on weekends.  A little bit at a time.  This is #2 on my list of 'priority projects', but that full project also includes weather-proofing the actual oven.  The other part is the hard-surface to stand-on, in-front of the oven.  My (current) thinking is that I'll create an 8x8(ish) area that is edged with landscape timbers.  I'll use a nonwoven geotextile underneath the whole thing and install a couple of timbers as a retaining wall - to help handle the grade change.  

Here's my initial excavation post showing some of the dirt removal.   And, just last week, I measured the depth of grade-change at the seven-foot-deep-mark.  About 12" of earth that needs to be held back. 

Over the weekend, I picked up one (1) 6x6x8 treated ground-contact landscape timber from the big box lumber store.  It is H E A V Y.  I put it in my car and hauled it to the backyard.  I'll plan to go back and get three more, but I wanted to start with the 'dry-fitting' of the timbers to see how much more I have to excavate.  

Below - is a photo - showing the dry-fitting of the first timber across the front of the slab.  The timber is eight-feet-long and the slab is right around six-feet long.  

From what I've read online, it is best to allow for 8-12-inches of backfill gravel *behind* the timbers - when they're serving as a retaining wall.  That would mean that I should excavate a foot-more than where the timbers land.  

Looking at that photo, my plan is to butt up the next timbers to the edges of this one.  So, when measured from edge-of-timber to edge-of-timber, the area will be 8'11".  And the front-to-back will be a true eight-feet.  

I have more excavation to do, but I think I can knock that out in an hour-or-so.  

Once that's complete, I'll excavate down to the drywell and create a level surface for the timbers to sit-on.  Down goes the fabric, then the paver base.  Lastly, I will secure them with rebar (or something similar) - which will allow me to move on to setting the the second layer around the back.  

In goes the gravel behind the walls with the fabric folded over before backfilling.