How To Build Concrete Retaining Wall Design

Without a pressure relief system the weight of the water in the soil would crack or even buckle the wall.

How to build concrete retaining wall design.

It took a day to rip out the old collapsing retaining wall to dig farther into the hill to provide room for the backfill gravel and to help unload materials. However concrete doesn t look great aesthetically. The failures also clearly demonstrate the lack of knowledge or design that is required by a successful retaining wall design. Using a tape measure decide the length and the width of your retaining wall then mark off the area with the garden stakes and string.

Despite the fact that they serve an extremely functional purpose there is no reason why retaining walls can t look great as well. The success of your retaining wall depends on a level base. A retaining wall must provide a way to release the water that builds up in the slope behind it. However an enterprising individual with a few sacks of concrete and a garden hose can make an equally useful and elegant concrete bag retaining wall.

Numerous textbooks and technical papers on soil mechanics foundation engineering concrete design masonry design and in all sorts of related topics. Block retaining walls are generally the same as freestanding block walls but with a few important differences. A wall that leans into the soil it retains is less likely to be pushed outward by soil pressure than a plain old vertical wall. Avoid having downspouts pointed at the retaining wall and if it s against the house keep soil and mulch well below the siding.

How to build a concrete wall prep work. Materials tools and site. By understanding how a wall works and how it can fail it is possible to engineer a retaining structure that will meet all foreseen environmental structural and construction demands. To create a solid foundation dig a trench for the first course of your interlocking retaining wall blocks to sit in and make sure the ground remains even throughout.

The interlocking retaining wall block can be used to build walls up to 24 to 36 inches high depending on the size of the block. Despite the many references a single volume on retaining wall design for the professional practitioner and civil engineering student could not be found. Professionally made they can be extremely expensive but they always look beautiful. In the past years people frequently used concrete for inexpensive retaining wall ideas since it functions well solid and dependable.

The wall we built was a weekend long project and an exhausting one at that.