Designing a retaining wall

IaLeo

Well-known Member
My frau and I are about to have two sections of retaining wall designed/installed. She wants to be able to sit flower pots on "steps" anywhere on the walls.

These walls are about 5 feet tall at the house wall starts and taper off to nothing in about 12 feet in one case, about 30 feet in the other case.

Has anyone done something like this and what type of block did you use? How did you stabilize that kind of slope?

I imagine the "steps" would have to be 8 to 11 inches wide to accomplish this.

And of course...walls to curve a little!

I like flat limestone, but I don't think that will happen.

Leo
 
Years ago I worked for a land scape company and we did lots of walls like that. Most of them where tie walls but a few with large rocks as in so big you could only haul one or 2 in a pickup. I've even have a rock one on my place where I raise the ground level to stop flood water.
 
Sinse you are having it designed, I would go with the recommendations of the contractor, and get several bids, not necessarily going with the lowest bid.

The contractor should be familiar with the local ground conditions, what works and what doesn't. Ask to see some of his past work of similar design, especially something a few years old. Talk to the homeowners if possible.
 
Home Depot sell retaining wall masonry units. I?m
sure Lowe?s and Menards does too.
 
The one that extends only 12 feet from the top needs tiebacks on the wall "steps" to prevent slumping as it weathers (freeze thaw cycles). If the wall material is interlocked between pieces,
every third one needs it if not, closer is better. The other wall can get by with less, or none. Freeze thaw will be important to consider. Is the house wall reinforced to handle the
pressure of the wall wt. or is it newly dug excavation? Jim
 
Another thing. Bigger is better. If you go out into the woods and look over
really well done old farm stone dry walls, they will teach you so much. Good
large heavy fitted stones. Also never go with a straight up and down wall. You
want it to tip inwards a little. The other stuff is good too but the basics are
where to start.look at both of these videos.
Stone fitting
 
This video is from the OLD country and is Very informative. This is where you see four and five hundred year old walls.
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Old country
 
These walls have been up for over 5 years. First course on very level sand. Bought the blocks at the local lumber yard.
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One more little thing. Most landscaping outfits only know how to use "pavers"
and interlocking blocks. If you want a true rustic wall watch these videos and
find some otheres too. The more you know the chances are you will end up with a
nicer wall that will last several life times. Areas were the glaciers were, you
find miles of those hand layed walls. Take a nice long walk in the woods with
your camera and take plenty of pictures. Your research will be very rewarding.
Just fantastic stuff.
 
Something to keep in mind....

Your local building codes may have impact on how or what you build for a wall. In my area, any wall over 4 feet tall is supposed to have a permit. If it is over 4 feet and within 4 feet of an adjoining property it has to be engineered (protects the adjoining property).
 
Thanks for the suggestions.

Those pictures of walls look very sophisticated!

I expect the earth beneath the upper layers of a tilted back or stepped layer wall would have to be well drained and compacted.
Stepped layers so to get the ledges for her flower pots.

This is in the country with fairly light soils. I don't dare tie anything to the basement as it is all wood and warranteed for 75 years. After 17 years I have not seen any sagging or bowing or dampness....yet.

Thanks
 
First dig out the base, we use 8? of crusher run, and
compact it very good, then we use retaining wall
block made at our local block company, the block
steps back as it goes up and is held together with
plastic pins, then we glue the caps on. You must
put a 4? drain pipe behind the base of the wall and backfill with crushed stone, the
wall has to drain, if the wall is built right it will hold
back the ground. For a 5? high wall you do not need geo mesh, just road fabric to sepeate the dirt from the crushed stones for the drainage.
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Leo - If possible, try to make the wall convex to the dirt side.
That way, any pushing pressure makes the wall tighter.
Understand that this is not always possible.
 
Back in '95 and '96, with some help from my B.I.L., I built a straight retaining wall in from of my house.
It is aout 40' long, 5' high and 3' thick.
This is not stepped like the one you propose so I'm not sure how helpful this will be.
Having never built a stonewall before, I wasn't too familiar with the process. I arbitrarily placed a pipe on each end tilted back 7 degrees. I then ran a string and raised it as I went along.
The angle is not even noticeable.
As much as I could, I tried to use stones that covered 2/3 of the depth, alternating from front to rear. I carefully filled all the spaces with crushed stone as I went along. I tried to vary the thicknesses so as to not get the "brick wall" look.
After we painstakingly made a perfectly flat top with a beautiful design, I went out and bought a grand's worth of cut blue stone to cap the wall and keep the water out.
I had one advantage that most people don't have.......there is an abandoned flagstone quarry a half mile away on the old homestead.
It has not been worked since before 1900 and at the time all the "tailings" were thrown over the bank in front of the quarry. Nearly all these pieces have at least one nice straight edge.
Although it was quite a lot of work, the satisfaction of having built it cannot be overstated. I think this may be an original saying of mine: "A stonewall is nothing more than a pile of rocks, stacked neatly"
BTW, as you build, do not let any stones touch your string.....
that happened to me at one point and it caused a tiny bulge before I noticed. Very minor and not readily visible unless you look for it.



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