retaining wall

[mccormickDave]

Well I have finally gotten around to installing the digital camera software on the new computer. I snapped a few photos of the retaining wall that is quickly consuming all of my time. Also, I never did get around to posting some pics of my new Mccormick so I thought I would include those as well. The Mccormick now has 84 hours of use.

 

[mccormickDave]

Progress on retaining wall from last weekend

 

[mccormickDave]

Help from my father and McCormick

 

[mccormickDave]

Progress made on the wall at the end of Yesterday

 

[mccormickDave]

The grass seed planted in May is starting to fill in.

 

[Mogombus]

Nice, looks very similar to the 100'+ wall in front of my house. I wish I had my tractor when I was doing that project! My back still hurts two years later...

 

[KiotiJohn]

Coming along well Dave. I'm glad to see you're still letting your dad help out! What a great drive up to the house, and that grass job looks really good. John

 

[Darren]

Dave, since you're dealing with clay, remember it's the worse material for backfill. Clay backfill produces the most pressure on a retaining wall. If you're using a stone as backfill, it's a good idea to wrap the stone in geotextile to prevent soil from gradually infiltrating, filling the spaces between the stone and creating problems in the future.

 

[RobS]

Beautiful place there Dave! It's funny, you build a wall because you have to. Here in the flat midwest we build walls to create topography that we don't have naturally /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[mccormickDave]

Thanks everyone for the kind words and suggestions. NASCAR was back in action on Sunday so I did not get much more accomplished on the wall.
Clay in Southwestern PA, you must joking we don't have clay /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif. That clay certainly is a bogger to dig through, could not have imagined trying to dig without the toothbar on the loader. I will admit, I am getting soft in my old age and rented an excavator for digging out the footer. I can't imagine why anyones back would bother them from using these blocks /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif, if I ever have to build another one of these, I am going to check with renting a unit that picks up 3 blocks at a time and lays the block out. I have not seen one operate, but if it does half of what it claims too......
Darren it sounds like you have built a wall or two. I did not want to mess around with the clay, so I excaveted out 8 feet behind the wall for the horizontal layers of geogrid and am filling with 2 inch and crusher run immediately below and on top of the geogrid. I have found that straw does a good job of separating dirt from gravel. I have been placing a good thick layer of straw between the clay and the gravel, whole heck of a lot cheaper than buying the soil separate fabric. Will post more pics as work resumes, just waiting for the second triaxle of crusher run to be delivered.
Dave