3Ts
Elite Member
That can be done in a single pour. I have someone in the process of doing that now. I'll try to post a picture after a bit, it's dark here now.
Anybody pour a retaining wall in vertical sections?
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newbury
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For the retaining wall portion - Have you looked into used Jersey walls?
Seems with some timber tie-backs it seems like a good application.
Not quite as pretty but just as effective is stacked bags of concrete.
Seems with some timber tie-backs it seems like a good application.
Not quite as pretty but just as effective is stacked bags of concrete.
MossRoad
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Look for a contractor with a line pump. They can pump several hundred feet horizontally no problem.
3Ts
Elite Member
Here's a picture of what the concrete contractor is doing at my place. The forms are not completed yet, but he put up the outside forms, filled in behind them with dirt (see note below), then dug the dirt back out for the wall thickness. It will be a single piece of concrete forming the footer, wall and patio.
The note: The "dirt" is what is called "select fill" around here. It is a mixture of sand and clay, it compacts well, is easy to dig, and keeps it's shape well. It's used for all the foundation slabs around here.
Streetcar
Veteran Member
Back in school and when I was a designer, cantilever retaining wall design criteria was vertical sections. I have not designed walls for 20 years
Streetcar
Veteran Member
you could have bent bars that go to the top of the wall and turn into slab. Make sure rebar is sized for this extra force
smiley
Gold Member
It is pretty standard construction procedure when you have to move equipment over a driveway/sidewalk/etc, to lay down plywood and or planks and if a really heavy load, cover them with a foot or two of gravel then remove it when finished. Done it many times but!! --- I bet you won't get the concrete supplier to sign off on it. For tracked equipment we generally just used tires.
As for reinforcing the wall, If it wasn't dark right now, I'd go take a picture of a stone laid up UN-REINFORCED wall on the end of my porch built in 1975 with no problems. The only secret is drainage. It has no footer but a foot or more of well compacted ROB gravel, 4" drainage pipe under it, 2 ft of gravel backfill and many drainage weep holes punched between the rocks with an aluminum arrow shaft that happened to be handy. when we get really heavy rains you can see the water seeping from the holes.
If you have good drainage under the slab and wall I think you could tie the wall into your slab on top as you said. but remember the gravel backfill and weeps. But because you're in upstate NY too, there's the possibility of frost raising the slab and cracking the wall or slab, it might be better to just pour the slab behind or over top of the wall with expansion joint.
it will add greatly to the cost but you can bend rebar L shaped and run it behind the wall about 3 ft, You can pour it monolithic or separately as a footer/slab/wall 6-8" thick, but don't forget the weep holes. This way the weight of the backfill (select gravel) will hold the wall from ever tipping out. We did this with about an 8 ft wall then faced it with stone, in front of a historical home on rt 30N in Fonda NY many years ago.
Smiley
As for reinforcing the wall, If it wasn't dark right now, I'd go take a picture of a stone laid up UN-REINFORCED wall on the end of my porch built in 1975 with no problems. The only secret is drainage. It has no footer but a foot or more of well compacted ROB gravel, 4" drainage pipe under it, 2 ft of gravel backfill and many drainage weep holes punched between the rocks with an aluminum arrow shaft that happened to be handy. when we get really heavy rains you can see the water seeping from the holes.
If you have good drainage under the slab and wall I think you could tie the wall into your slab on top as you said. but remember the gravel backfill and weeps. But because you're in upstate NY too, there's the possibility of frost raising the slab and cracking the wall or slab, it might be better to just pour the slab behind or over top of the wall with expansion joint.
it will add greatly to the cost but you can bend rebar L shaped and run it behind the wall about 3 ft, You can pour it monolithic or separately as a footer/slab/wall 6-8" thick, but don't forget the weep holes. This way the weight of the backfill (select gravel) will hold the wall from ever tipping out. We did this with about an 8 ft wall then faced it with stone, in front of a historical home on rt 30N in Fonda NY many years ago.
Smiley
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Captain Dirty
Platinum Member
Carefully price all your options. After vandals burned a friend's 20 x 20 woodlot retreat, he rebuilt the cabin with poured concrete (aka "bunker") (actually, vertical furring strips inside the forms gave a "softer" vertical-board look.) He discovered the cost to pour with a crane and bucket was a fraction of the cost of pumping.
Clay soil will likely mean gravel (stone) backfill, weepers, and you may be able to use a stone footing. If rocks are plentiful on site, a "wet laid" stone retaining wall my be an (relatively) inexpensive and good-looking alternative.
What you do yourself implies low labor costs but sometimes high opportunity costs.
