Retaining wall
 

Need assistance on building a retaining wall. Have a short sloped backyard. Want to level out yard for a small dog or something.

Be sure that you use some type of filter fabric for the stabilization. I work for an engineering company and hear of a lot of people that have serious erosion problems, so make sure you think out the drainage. How tall and what type of retaining wall are you talking about?

http://www.cwc.ca/applications/lands...taining_walls/

I would like to have it 6 ft tall at most. Have not actually surveyed the land to determine how high it needs to be. I would gues not longer than about 20-25ft. Thanks for the link.

You should check with your local code. A wall that tall probley needs to be enginered.

You're going to want to sink some serious steel fairly deep into the ground to anchor your wall. In addition my dad and I always use extra rebar in the base and going up into the hollows of the cinder block. (Usually double the number required by code) Then we make sure to fill those cinder holes with concrete and use long pieces of rebar to slush the concrete down the holes making sure that there are no air bubbles by raising and lowering the rebar and refilling with wet cement until near level with the top of the wall.

I would definately have someone familiar with retaining walls and the requirements of your local soil conditions and geophysical properties (earth movement etc...) have a hand in the planning if not the building of a retaining wall that high.

We also make sure to use a heavy duty tar or like material to waterproof the inside wall of the retaining wall below the soil surface, and use the appropriate piping to provide adequate drainage. Overly wet soil really pushes against a retaining wall.

depending on how much cash you want to shell out, you might consider something along the lines of an MSE wall, which utilizes geotextile fabric wrapped in layers to hold the slope or cut rather than excavating for a mass retaining wall. downside of fabric is looks - you'd be staring at either black or white fabric. you can, however incorporate what is called a "facing". this can be wood, concrete, shotcrete, plastic, etc, etc... again, all depends on how much you want to spend. also, an MSE wall approach would require you to possibly move more dirt than a concrete wall or steel wall driven into the ground. do a google search of "mirafi" and go to their case histories area for an idea of how these things look/work.

good luck

A retaining wall that high needs to be engineered because if it fails suddenly, it could kill someone. Having said that, the footing for the wall needs to be wide. Probably somewhere near 2'-3' or more for a 6"-8" wide wall. The extra width of the footing extends into the fill side of the wall so that the fill presses down onto the footing and keeps the wall from rolling over.
kevin

thanks everyone for your help. I am starting to reconsider the wall now. It will not likely add much value to the house anyway. Thanks again for all the suggestions