Anyone have expierance with retaining walls?
Question:We are building a 5 foot high and 15 foot long retaing wall... We are on a low budget. We have thought about block or railroad ties.. Does anyone have any suggestions or expierance who could help us figure out further for sure what we want to do? Railroad ties seem to me to be ugly but it is cheaper... Just very lost...lol any help would be appreciated Thanks so much
Answers:
I agree with Jimtex...except I wouldn't go back 5 feet behind the wall. He's right about proper drainage behind your wall. The effects of frost and thaw with regards to the hydro dynamics of water behind any structure will force it to bow out and eventually colapse in a short time. To prevent this you must channel this water away. A 2 foot trench behind the wall with a perf. pipe at the bottom covered by black drainage cloth (to keep mud out of the pipe) and then gravel will take care of drainage. Just make sure the water has a way of running out from behind your wall. The big home centers sell the concrete block designed for this purpose..not that expensive..it's designed to interlock with each block. Your supplier will tell you which to use when going 5 feet high. I don't care too much for railroad ties as they contain chemicals and also seem to attract large colonies of ants. Better still would be the 6x6 beams made from pressure treated wood. Your first course would lay below the ground level with the following layers on top (same with a stone or concrete wall). Stagger the joints and use either short lengths of rebar hammered through holes drilled in each beam (at about 16 to 18 inch space) or nail the top to the bottom row with 12' spikes (use a heavy maul). About half way up the wall you need to run "sleepers" perpendicular to the wall and anchored to a cross beam (like the letter "T"). You'll need to dig into your hill to lay these. Depending on the length of this wall these sleepers should be laid about every 4 feet or less. Lots of options.. its hard work but should last years with no problems. Again, talk to your local garden center or home building center. Go to the library and get some great books on home landscaping and garden walls.
If you are going that high, I would suggest that you clear out 5 foot behind the retaining wall area and put in this mesh that is used to support retaining walls. Then you can use either method. I would also suggest that you start out with a flat foundation complete with vertical re-bar to help stabilize the wall.
The mesh in the back will be back-filled with gravel so that water can seep down to the bottom of the retaining wall. I would also put some perforated pipe at the back of the retaining wall so that it will leach water out the sides of the wall and not allow the wall to become a dam.
Regards,
-Jim
Also make sure that your wall is stepped backed into the hill. Five feet is quite a high wall, and it will be holding back a lot of weight. At least a half inch on each railroad tie.
as a rule of thumb your wall is supposed to be pitched back into the hill 1" for every foot of height
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