retaining wall

[jester7891]

My property slopes off at one point and I am losing too much soil from run off. I was thinking of putting in a retaining wall (about 50 yards long). I have lots of rocks, stones and small boulders from another project. The wall will have to be at most 3-4 feet high, 12-18" deep I'm guessing. Anyone know of a good book or website that will help step by step for a novice. I planned on using some kind of cement to hold things in place but I'm worried of water building up behind the wall and toppling it. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Jester

 

[philbuilt]

Hi Jester,
Will you be back filling the wall? If so I would build in stages so that the bottom of the wall starts wide and build up. Base wall thickness 30" and taper up to the 14" thickness. You can lock together with concrete. Back fill as you go. I would also look at the land so as to have a plan to have the water drain in the direction that I would dictate. Plan your drainage and you won't have any problem.
Phil

 

[ALHILLDIRT]

I've used rock and precast blocks to build retaining walls. If you're building anything over a couple foot high I would go with the precast blocks. The main thing to remember is that the water has to have some where to go. Either drain it off at the surface or provide subsurface drains.

 

[RedNeckRacin]

there is a nice color picture book with step by step instructions for both block, precast, and timbered walls. It was written by black and decker and is avaliable at lowe's in the book shelf for around $20. Very nice for a novice.

 

[CurlyDave]

Jester:

Wall thickness is your friend in any retaining wall.

I have built stacked rock retaining walls by putting down a first course of rock ~ 1 foot high and about 3' thick, backfilling with dirt, and then putting down a second course with part of the rock covering the backfill on the first course. Essentially, slope the wall back towards the uphill side.

If you have rocks with one dimension longer than the others, place them with the long dimension perpendicular to the face of the wall. Concrete will only trap water and make it easier for the wall to fail.

 

[Willis Fecon Bushhogging]

My property slopes off at one point and I am losing too much soil from run off. I was thinking of putting in a retaining wall (about 50 yards long). I have lots of rocks, stones and small boulders from another project. The wall will have to be at most 3-4 feet high, 12-18" deep I'm guessing. Anyone know of a good book or website that will help step by step for a novice. I planned on using some kind of cement to hold things in place but I'm worried of water building up behind the wall and toppling it. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Jester

I just did a job kinda like this for a customer in a new house. The contractor, failed to do proper landscaping and about 100ft of one side of the property had eroded the property, within 15ft of the house. I had to bring in enough dirt to, replace the eroded soil, it was about 8 loads of dirt, I put the proper slope, then I installed a heavy membrane and placed rocks, starting at the bottom, building the rock slope wall as it comes up to the top. I then added about a 1 ft wall at edge of the top top, I then seeded the top area and installed a straw like matting, this keeps the soil stable until the seed comes up, then the mat just rots away and turns to topsoil/dirt. This was a little intensive, had to place the rocks by hand, but it turned out great and got us 2 more jobs in the area.
I try to check my jobs like this a few times, just to keep in good with the customer, its been about 6-7 months and we have had some really bad rain storms and everything is great, I should have done a before and after picture, but didnt.
this is the way I did that job, I didnt have to build a wall, just a way to prevent the dirt from being washed away

 

[Darren]

One of the keys to preventing retaining wall failure is to never use a soil containing clay as backfill. The next must-do is to install a drain pipe (holes down) behind the base of the wall. That should rest on geotextile that extends up the back of the wall and up the slope behind the wall. Back fill with clean gravel (#57) around the drain and up about a foot. Then fold the geotextile over the top to prevent fines from blocking the gravel and drain pipe in the future. Use sand to backfill the wall from there up to about one foot or 6" from the top. Use regular soil for the rest.

Fifty years from now the wall will still be there.

 

[mtg65]

Anyone know of a good book or website that will help step by step for a novice. I planned on using some kind of cement to hold things in place but I'm worried of water building up behind the wall and toppling it. Any suggestions?
Thanks, Jester

Google this book: The Art and Craft of Stonescaping by David Reed - It gave me the fundamentals to build a "dry stacked" retaining wall with the stones around my property. My wall is about 70 feet long and four feet high. This will be the third spring (if it ever gets here) since I put it in an it hasn't moved an inch. I will send a picture of it as soon as the snow goes...

 

[bigballer]

i did alot of reading and talked to a few contractors before starting my wall. i had to do some excavating to prep the area and had 30 ton of rock brought in, i thought about doing the precast blocks but after i priced all the options the rocks were about the same cost. the block may have gone a bit faster labor-wise once the first course was laid but i really like the look of the rock so that's what i went with. i have 2 more similar walls to build this summer. this one has been through 2 very wet winters and has drained a ton of water that otherwise would have been flooding my barn. it's about 4 1/2 ft high at the peak and tapers down on each side. the run is about 70 ft and the perf-pipe drops about 8" over the run and daylights into the ditch. it was a very rewarding project.

http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/87806-building-rock-wall-road-grading.html

Good Luck with yours!