Retaining walls and patio

[Muhammad]

More of the fence

 

[Xfaxman]

 

[Muhammad]

Today the second phase of the retaining wall began. This is the existing hill that needs to be retained. Also desired is a new driveway and steps going from the street to the house.

 

[Muhammad]

Had to fill in the area beside the house as it's going to get landscaping and some concrete sections.

 

[Muhammad]

Rented a T110 and just started going crazy.

Cut away a large portion of the hillside and will build up and fill in three leveled retaining walls. Installing the geo mesh this time because we have the ability to start from grade level and backfill the entrie first two levels.

Some observations about the T110: I prefer joystick control to foot pedals. But the T110 is way more stable than the T450. Still has good power despite being smaller. Nice little machine but really needs joystick controls.

 

[Muhammad]

The plan is to start with the first course of retaining wall blocks at the sidewalk, and build that row up completely and backfill it. Then the second level about 4 feet back from that, same process. I think it may have been possible to just create terraces with a mini ex but I also wanted to build up with the geo grid considering the size of this hill so I just got the bobcat for a few days. I guess there are multiple ways to put a wall up. The other one we did hasn't toppled over yet!

 

[MossRoad]

Looks nice!

 

[EddieWalker]

Retaining walls get tricky when you go higher then 4 feet. Back when I lived in CA, you didn't need a permit for anything under 4 feet, but once you went higher, they wanted an engineer to design it. The inspector only cared about what the engineer said to do, and that it was done exactly as the engineer said to do it. Any change and it would not pass.

 

[Muhammad]

Retaining walls get tricky when you go higher then 4 feet. Back when I lived in CA, you didn't need a permit for anything under 4 feet, but once you went higher, they wanted an engineer to design it. The inspector only cared about what the engineer said to do, and that it was done exactly as the engineer said to do it. Any change and it would not pass.

Yeah it's still a 4' limit in this town and you can do multiple terraces without a permit. They care more about cmu walls than stacked keystone blocks. Cmu walls over 36" from the base of the footing require a permit and I've seen crews out knocking courses off walls after getting a visit from an inspector.

 

[Muhammad]

A day of work in the books. This one has a few awkward things like a slope and the electrical box that already has a little mini wall that we're just building next to.