7 Commonly Overlooked Retaining Wall Install Mistakes that Lead to Failure
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- čas přidán 31. 05. 2024
- These are 7 common mistakes that I see in segmental retaining wall installations from my time in the industry. From the excavation to the final step of the process, each of these things can easily be missed or skipped and will lead to the failure of the project.
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“To a certain height which is usually not that high” 😂 Love the specificity.
😂👍
Finally a complete video on the minimum methods applied to properly build a retaining wall. Thank you
Hope it helped!
Destabilizing a retaining wall form my new home purchase and I realized now why it failed drainage buried underneath ground , no gravel base , no backfill
Yup, all very common things to see
Dude you’re goated. Thank you for sharing information like this
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Best video on the subject! Keep them coming. Thx.
glad it helps!
awesome ! thank you for the time spent to share this info
Thank you for watching and commenting!
Man this channel never disappoints
Thank you!
Another great video Mike!
You're a beauty!
He is a very good worker and explanation
Thank you!
great information
Thank you!
I'm working on a 900ft2 raised bed garden that is on a slope and 24" tall/deep at the highest point and 8" at the lowest point. Custom made my drain system and set the base course on 4" of reinforced concrete. Blocks are smooth glue type and I used a solid film of Loktite PL-500 adhesive. Expensive and slow to build but I think it will work because as a glued wall it's a homogenous unit. Time will tell.
Nice! I would say that if your wall units have a locking mechanism built into them or clips of some sort you don’t need to use glue. And just make sure the glue you are using is flexible.
A house flipper put up a 7 foot high and down step retaining wall along both sides of the garage driveway length. He used little gravel; No Geogrid; No reinforcing rods, and no drainage hose. Current landscaper tells us this and I see for myself. The 2010 wall bellied out as a result and blocks began pulling apart. Plus, he pointed out how the "Other Guy" used solid black fabric behind the wall and never ever do that!! We bought this next door house for my brother-in-law, and really did not want it, but were afraid of what would come if we did not. It has been a money pit ever since (Like a boat).
Ouch sorry to hear that!
(BOAT) break off another thousand lol this has been my house as well.
Doesn't the freeze line, for your area, determine how far down you put the footer (base)? Freezing subsurface heaves up and down from season to season
Segmental retaining walls are designed to be flexible systems. As long as the base is free draining that doesn’t hold moisture and uniform, plus the retaining wall needs to be constructed properly.
Daaaaang I should have done more homework before starting this part of my project because besides digging out the area for my pavers and retaining wall I definitely didn't compact the ground before I put down crushed concrete , I did compact the hell out of the concrete though and have slag under the pavers and bricks. The wall is only 6 inches high so I'm hoping for the best
6 inches isn’t too high 👍
Depending on how loose the soil was, with only a 6" wall, you should be ok for a while.
I’d like to build a retaining wall in a riverfront location which would be able to challenge the movement of blocks of ice during the spring thaw Do you have any courses for this type of retaining wall? Thanks
I do not. I’d choose a manufacturer and reach out to them on specs for building that type of wall.
What about a retaining wall for a driveway. If you want to run asphalt to the block. Do you run a continuous drain along the top if the wall. Or pitch it to a corner drain. 🤔
Your driveway should already be sloped towards the road so you shouldn’t have to worry about a drain behind the top of the wall
Do you have any tips on how to build a wall on a slope? I don't know whether to start at the top and stagger down or start at bottom and work my way up. Or just spend the extra money and dig a long level bottom. The wall is about 17meters long and will be 1m high at the low point
It is easiest and best to work from the bottom up. It would likely be quite a bit more to dig the whole trench level. Also just note that at 1m high you are at the border line height for requiring the design to be engineered.
I don't exactly know how to use landscape fabric for a retaining wall. I know that you use a layer behind the backfilled part of the wall. That makes sense.
But I also see different combinations with lining the entire trench with it, layer above the base, layers between the courses, etc.
Lining the entire trench sounds strange to me as I feel like that would be like a gutter right under your wall. I'm referring to a diy backyard retaining wall no higher than 4ft.
Yes you definitely want to install the geotextile for the wall trench. It still drains especially if you get the nonwoven. It is more so to separate the gravel from the subsoil. There are two schools of thought behind the wall for fabric. I generally do especially if it is a garden wall. But always a layer of fabric on top of the drainage area behind the wall so the soil does not work its way down.
@@iamahardscaper So if I'm doing things by the book, I would have a layer lining the bottom of the trench. A layer from the capstone down the back of the wall and over the drainage area. Naturally I'll also have a layer on the top of the backfill just for blocking weeds on the surface. Sound about right? Thanks!
Yes but if you are doing fabric for the trench, that can just extend to the backfill area and up and then back to the caps.
@@iamahardscaper Ah! Ok, so in a cross-section view a single perpendicular (to the wall) length of fabric can cover all those areas. Kind of like a fabric wall behind your actual wall/drainage. I haven't seen a video that has been super clear about this, but this was helpful. Thanks.
So I'm building a 6 inch retaining wall so I can level off my yard where it is lower than my neighbors yard and he has a lot of water pool on his side of the fence so I was thinking if I just built my yard up so it's just above level and graded slightly towards his yard go prevent the water from flooding into my yard, do you think this will work? Or should I install a french drain behind the retaining wall? I'm working on a huge drainage project, all of my downspouts are on a line and 2 french drains on a line both of which going to a few NDS flo-wells. I'd rather not have to dig more since that's all I've been doing for the last 5 weeks but if you think putting it in is a must, then I will. The area I'm building up is off my patio, I have one low spot that water runs off so I have a catch basin right where the water runs off, I graded the pavers to drain any run off to the catch basin but didn't expect to catch any of the water from my neighbors, just push it back towards his house (I offered the neighbor to put in a drain between our houses to fix both our problems but he had 0 interest so I figure he can just keep the water. Thoughts please?
I’m sorry any drainage work would need me to be there to see everything. It never hurts to have a properly built French drain.
@@iamahardscaper thanks for your feed back, I reckon I'll have to see if I still get water coming in from that corner after this project is finished and if need be, I have plenty of material left to do so
Silver City NM has a 100-year old, two-storey, water-pumping building made of hand-laid stone, whose basement is 20'x20' and goes 50' down, with no settling issues. HOW?
😮
The Romans built structures which still stand today. The Pantheon in Rome is one of them. In the middle ages it was besieged by several feet of flood water from the Tiber River until river flood walls were later built. Like one You Tuber wrote: "It is one of the most incredible buildings I ever walked into." It is 2000 years old : czcams.com/video/GiDcLsZNMO4/video.html
For a 1’ wall would a 4” drainage pipe still be necessary?
I still usually do if anything for more space for water
What is your opinion on Belgrade diamond Pro vs Piedmont/Rosetta’s Kodah products for retaining walls 3’ ish to 4’ at a certain point on one of two walls around our pool?
I unfortunately do not have an opinion on either. I've never used them. If it is an aesthetic question, that is all personal preference. If it is more so the function, I would double check with the manufacturers to see whether their walls can be built and how they are to be built to that height.
@@iamahardscaper ok thx. One is the rougher facing. The other are wet cut 45-100+ lb multi length pieces that resemble limestone and are easier to touch, lean against, sit on etc, but Kodah product is pricier and not sure I shouldn’t just save the 5k and use the $ on plantings/landscaping
Yeah, that is a budgeting issue but I wouldn't want to settle on something I wont like. I would just weigh whether or not you like the less expensive option. If you like it, it doesn't hurt to save a little and use that money elsewhere. If you feel you are just settling for that option, I would go with the pricier one and then just revisit the plantings when you are ready to in the future.
How long should it take to do an L shape wall 12' by 12' 2 courses
That is tough to say without seeing it in person. If it is just a free standing wall, it’d take me as one person probably a day to do it with everything delivered on site ready to go and a bin for excavation.
I installed a 24’ round pool and need to make a 12’ radius wall halfway around the pool with the highest point 48” then slopes down to 18” on both sides. Is there a specific stone I need to use for that radius with the versa loc system? I’m not sure how many courses/blocks I’m going to need. It’s about 40 linear feet.
You can use any wall system, it just depends on how much cutting you want to do. Preferably with minimal cutting you are looking for a wall that has tapered units and then you can consult with the manufacturers specs to see if that wall works with that specific radius. Otherwise you will need to do some cutting.
I’m building patio steps leading up to my house using retaining wall block. My base is 2A modified (with fines) and the backfill for the steps is going to be 3/4” angular clean stone. Do you think there’s a need for a drain since this isn’t expected to collect much water like a typical retaining wall? And if you think a drain is needed should it be on top of the base layer or higher in the clean stone? Thanks!!
I wouldn’t think a drain is necessary for just steps. I’d have to see, but if it is just steps, you are good
What kind of pavers are you using?
Pavers and Wall product in these videos are usually Techo Bloc, sometimes they are Unilock or Belgard (Permacon) also.
I want to learn bcs right now I m doing small small landscaping project
I would go to the start of this playlist and go through the videos that apply to your project
Hardscape Installation
czcams.com/play/PLDb_Bo8EoV6SzzuKFZLIGdXW6nG4pBcJS.html
Does anyone have any experience with tire derived aggregate as backfill?
I have never heard of that before
@@iamahardscaper off the top of your mind. Would that sound reasonable to use? All it is is chipped vehicle tires at 3" to 6" used for drainage and lightweight support
I personally would not. I have never seen that speced in anything I have ever built and don't think that would compact properly.
For anyone looking to build a wall over 3 feet, YOU NEED A PERMIT FROM THE CITY.
AMEN!
Eff the city lol 😂
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I'm building a 172" retaining wall, no code. 🤫 shhhh lol
That was a weird talk. Why, when you need to say the word "behind" you instead say "in behind"?
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Why don't you explain the processes you talk about for repairing the problems? Your video is useless and only comments on the blatantly obvious.
There are no repairs for these problems. Tear it down and start again. The solutions are in the video on how to build it properly and there are further videos on our channel for full guides to retaining wall builds.
@@iamahardscaper I have a retaining wall that fell because the fiberglass pins were not long enuf. We paid a professional to fix it and they said it will never fall. 10 years later, it fell. I fixed it this time for good. I was unable to find answers as to how to fix my wall.
There is never a fix for a wall unfortunately other than just following the steps to build it up properly. Good compacted base, embedded 6”, drainage area, setbacks and or geogrid for added stability, and properly leveling each course.
@@iamahardscaper I used 5 ft fiberglass rebar in all my base layers and pinned each upper brick with 12 inch pins to allow 4 inches of pin to hold each upper brick because the bricks are 8 inches thick.
Hydrostatic pressure??? It's because of the weight of the rock behind the wall. Ppl grade the ground behind the wall around 45° and all that weight with the Earth's rotation pushes forward into the wall and eventually the wall gives hydrostatic pressure is a goofy scientific term like everything else use to explain nothing.....it's simple just like how cliffs fail the Earth's rotation causes the weight of earth to move ......
So with that logic there is no reason to have a drainage area behind the wall. I’ve seen many walls fail within a year because of the logic you gave there.
@@iamahardscaper I never said no drainage. I said about the weight of several tons of stone pushing on these walls. Yes drainage is needed but in the past twenty years there have been over 100 different ways to install a retaining wall and given today's technology this has never been perfected
But with that placing a mirroring parallel retaining wall to the first wall should mean there would be no need for slope at all because the force of the earths rotation would surely keep in in place since the earth rotates in a single direction thus exerting the a uniform directional force on all things alike.
Man, I hope you're either kidding or can't breed. Either way, adults are on this site, waste time elsewhere.
Have you misunderstood? It’s the added pressure of water that causes the wall to give (often) hence making sure the water can drain downwards or out through the wall relieves the pressure and stops walls failing!