Building retaining wall?
Question:I am doing my first wall...never did this before.smile. My question is, if I am only going 2 rows high with castle wall do I still need to put first row underground? They would be going around a pre-existing garden that has that plastic stuff as edging...I won't even be adding any dirt behind this wall. Then I was gonna come out in front of that wall with a 2'x3' section to put annuals only making that 1 row high...for different level effect. Is it ok to only put block only 2" under...I will be putting dirt in this one thou. I look around at houses that have 1 row and they really don't appear to have another row under them...plz help, you people on here are great! I will say Thank You So Much now and have a great day.smile.
Answers:
dig out the soil till you reach clay or firm base. put lengths of wood to make a trough twice the width of the bricks (min) and level along length and fill with concrete 12" deep or so. leave to set then lay bricks on mortar on this foundation.
failure to do this will mean the wall is unstable and will sink into the soft earth over time. The higher the wall, the greater the depth of the foundations. have fun
I'm not familiar with the "castle wall" you refer to but a retaining wall should have an anchoring system of some type if you dont there is nothing preventing movement of the base course and the wall may buckle i assume the type of block you are using inter-lock together so the upper course is dependant on the stability of the base course I would recommend at least 1/3rd of the first course to be below grade. hope this helps
About windows?
Just get it level, as short as it is, a "footing" is not that important. just make sure it is level and you do this by diging OUT the high spots.
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