How to Build a Retaining Wall and 6 Reasons they Fail
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- Опубліковано 6 жов 2016
- We are going to show you how to build a Retaining wall and show you 6 reasons they Fail. Today we cover the basics that will let you build a better wall and become a skilled installer! This Retaining wall Project near St.Paul MN is typical of an Installation that the owner neglected which led to its collapse. You can avoid these common mistakes and Learn how to Build a retaining wall for yourself.
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Tops! Simple, direct, clear, focused. The video is about the content, not you. And that's what viewers need.
This is very informative. I may never build a wall, but now I have some insight that is very valuable to me. Thank you!
Glad I could help!
there a lot he didn't talk about
I am a landscaper in Ohio, I just secured my first job doing a 3 foot retaining wall. I have come to rely on the wisdom you share with us all. I just wanted to thank you for all the help you have given me. I went from profiting $5,000 last year, to this year where I am on track to profit $30,000 to $40,000. Next year my goal is 100k, thank you so much.
Great job!
How did it go?
6 years later. Did you ever hit the $100,000 goal!?
Today I was moving around the wall and just happened to see that the soil near the wall was sinking and was porous just like u said and shown. I would have ignored it if I hadn't seen this video. I am newly graduated and damn sure ignored it. Thank you sir for preventing me from a disaster
Great engineering intuition. Was taught similar things by my lecturer, awesome to see them out there in practice.
I do not think anyone else it putting out this much information on landscape for free than you. I am an assistant golf course superintendent and in my field we have to know about these things when choosing contractors to do projects like retaining walls on our property and watching you videos has made me infinitely more knowledgeable about the science behind retaining walls etc. A wooden railway tie style retaining wall is failing on us and we are currently looking to replace it...to bad we are in New Jersey or you would be my first and only call.
Thank you for all this helpful information Stan, keep it coming!
Stanley you did a excellent job on this video, I have personally watched it five or six times. And even recommended it to customers to watch. Keep up the great work my friend.
Thank you!
Awesome video man. It was so perfectly and easily understandably put, that i just soaked up so much knowledge in such a short amount of time on a category ive never personally dealt with til this exact moment in time..
Well done sir.
Good form
Thanks for the great information you put out there, some of us appreciate what you do with your video's
This dude is a retaining wall master
Great content, good production, no over explaining! Thank you for creating these informative videos.
I'm glad to hear this helps- Thank you!
Awesome info. Just what I'm looking for at this exact moment. Thanks for posting.
Great Scott, happy it helped out
Great info. I'd hate to put in all the effort of building a wall only to see it fail later on. Thanks for the tips.
Great video! Very helpful. Short and to the point too.
Always the best advice Stanley. You are the top of the game... Keep up the great videos.
Thank you!
Thanks for replying to me in the past it means so much to me it was the one where you had three accidents sliding down the hill and nearly went into a pond/lake
Thanks for the video, it was clear and concise!
You have very good videos for anyone getting into the lawn and landscape industry
I love this video. Thank you for making it.
This is great. Thanks for sharing. We need to build a gabion planter to prevent our property from flooding too quickly during storms since my neighbor directed his water our way. The backfill tip is very helpful.
I'm glad to hear this helps- Thank you!
Thanks for this information. I have a big steep garden and I want ton renovate it. This is helpful.
you introduced me to 93rd masks and I was looking for a high quality relatively inexpensive one thanks for pointing me in the right direction
If I weren't so physically challenged these days, I would move from FL and beg to work for a guy like you. I used to love being a DIY guy and learning from videos like yours as part of my research before starting a project. I'm disgusted with the local licensed contractors, that I've had to hire because I can't do this anymore. They cut corners that defy what I consider common sense. They appear to be in code, but watching them going through the steps and putting pride in there work is two entirely different things. They're sloppy enough to pass but I know there will be problems in the future.
Wow, thanks for sharing!
“It’s all about the base”, “I found Waldo” - I love the humor, intended or not. Haha. But really, thank you for sharing your knowledge. I just bought a property near a wash whose erosion is coming close to the home so I’m going to replace the wood retaining wall with a more substantial one. Your expertise is helpful!
Gosh, and I was hoping it was just a cattle panel and T-stakes and bags of cat litter. Well, you’ve opened my eyes, and I know better now! Thank you very much.
was never interested in retaining walls or grading till I found your videos. good job.
Great advice. I have seen many walls go up. I have not had a failure because we follows these rules.
Excellent commentaires. Très professionnel. Je suis de Laval au Québec, Canada. Merci pour vos excellentes explications. C'est très apprécié. Ps, je comprends très bien l'anglais mais j'ai de la difficulté à l'écrire. François.
Thank you for this video, very helpful! :-)
Glad I can help 🙂
Awesome video. Loads of information! I love those masks!
Glad you liked the video and Those masks are really neat!
Please make more videos like this, they are awesome!
Thanks!
Great video👍👍👍
Drainage very important, and geogrid will assist the wall not to collapse..awesome video..
Great video !!
Thanks for the video. I inherited a retaining wall when we moved into our 60 year old house. It's about five feet tall and joins our neighbor's driveway. It seems fine, no bowing or sagging that I see. Two problems: it's cinder block and it's opened at the top. I can't see to the bottom, but I think it's open all the way down. Also, a large hole (waist high) is located directly behind the wall where a tree used to be. It keeps me up at night.
superb practical visualisation sir........... keep going sir...................
Very interesting video.
very good information, this man knows his stuff! I do Landscaping as well, an he is spot on.
Thanks man!
Great video definitely helpful
I find this type of information helpful! 👍
Glad I could help 🙂
Lots of good stuff here.
I appreciate you sharing your knowledge.........Very helpful
Appreciate that!
Tks for sharing. Regards from Sydney Australia 🇦🇺
Wow. I love your videos. I'm retired and need the wall replaced going down my outside basement steps on one side.. It's rotted wood, and I am afraid it will collapse one day. I assume it's the same with a small wall about 6x4. Now I will know if the person doing it, is doing it right Thank you so much for your video's, they save people like me from being taken advantage of..
Thats awesome to hear, thanks so much Colleen !!
Better yet, design your own walls and have it built to specs
Keep it going
great video, very informative. thank you.
What is your opinion about using gabion baskets as retaining walls? (specifically 3' high by 3' thick)
Thanks for all the info you give us rookies out here 🌞
Your Welcome- Hope it helps out 😃
Thanks for the video! It's the second of yours that I've watched and they're interesting and informative. I'm planning on building a limestone wall around a garden bed in front of my house. It looks like all your walls in the 2 videos I watched were dry stacked and am wondering about using a cement base and mortar. I was planning on using a cement base, mortaring the stones, and putting in 1/2 inch perforated pvc pipes for drainage periodically on the wall. It's on a slope and the height will range from 16" to 3ft. In your opinion, will this be sound?
Great video, thank you! I have a question; so I'm reading that the base of the wall should be 6" deep with an additional 1" per foot of the wall height. Do you have any insight into if that wall is on a slope? Does that rule still apply? Any feedback would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
good info
great info!!! thanks!!
Your welcome Rob!
this was very therapeutic to watch i dont know why haha. great video
Thank you!
@ Stanley, last year in November my father and I built a retaining wall using railroad ties and pre-drilled holes for 1/2" rebar that when flush went through the top railroad tie down into the railroad tie below it all the way through also. A total of about 15" of rebar per hole and approximately 4 15" rebar rods per railroad tie. The bottom layer of railroad ties had rebar 24" which resulted in about 16-16.5" of rebar in the ground. We also put a slight slant on them to lean towards the bank. They also overlap, so that one railroad tie is sitting on top of the two below it. So far, it is very stable and feels very solid! What do you think of this? I have photos during the build process I can e-mail you directly and I can take pictures of it currently also as it stands right now.
The problem I see is it is made of wood and it will rot. I built one like that when I bought my house in 1992 thinking I would be long gone or dead before it needed replaced...Guess who replaced it with concrete block in 2009....
@John Lincicum, As he said there are two parts to the answer: 1./ the "thoughtful" initial design and build (which you talk about yours here); 2./ the "diligent" maintenance plan, its periodic inspections and renovation work. That second part is key to the permanence of the first.
Very helpful! Thank you!
Thanks! Glad it helps!
Hi Hugo, I'm bfrom the UK. I have a wall that need building as previously it had concrete boards. I've sourced some sleepers but have no idea which way is best. I wish I could post a photo but many thanks vfirvthe information.
I've built a few dry layup walls. I didn't know what I was doing but when I back filled them I graduated the fill from large rock behind the wall to pea stone against the hill. My theory was that it would filter out the fines before it got to the wall. That first wall has stood unmoved for over 40 years.
I haven't built anything but block and rebar retaining walls for the past 25 years. I guess it's too soon tell if I've done anything wrong with them but I tend to go down at least a third of the overall height of the wall if not more depending on what I'm holding back. I also like to tilt them back a few degrees into the hill. I still back fill with large fill stone but I've added landscaping fabric to loose materials to keep the finest out of the drain tile. I've yet to see water come out of the drain tile.
Awesome video brother!!
Thank you!
Good information. Thanks.
You're welcome, hope it helps you out!
Very well explained. Came across your video looking for info on a retaining wall built next to another retaining wall on staggered property. Haven't come across any videos addressing this. I can send pictures of my situation. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Really enjoying your videos. Have never put much thought into retaining walls and such as I have never had a need to until recently. Bought a house last year with a 35x35 shop in the back yard. The entire back yard is a slope and they cut into the slope in order to create a level area to build the shop. There's a poorly constructed 3 foot retaining wall on one side of the shop and no retaining wall behind the shop. The building is about 35 years old - I'm not sure if at the time they built it there was some sort of drainage or what but at this point I'm getting flooding inside the shop every time it rains for more than a day or so at a time. Behind the building where there was no retaining wall the dirt has totally washed down to the point where I would have to dig down just to even see the foundation of the building. Is there any way I could send you a few pictures of what I'm dealing with and get your opinion on how to proceed? Wish you were in Georgia.
dam Stan..been waiting for a god dang week😂
Honestly I'm enjoying your hardscaping videos and so I too, would like to see more instructional videos on retaining walls challenges on slopes, and some more tips on maintenance pricing including routine maintenance checks and corrections. Thank you, I really appreciate you
I signed up to be a free member until I could take your courses online. I'm still trying to figure out how your website directs me because I went to the first lesson and it said I completed the first lesson however I only clicked the button that said complete first lesson..thinking it would direct me to the first lesson ..yay! but instead it just said congratulations...but I didn't read anything or answer any questions or take a test, anyways moving forward, I'm going to purchase your books for the coursework unless there is a grant program?...
Actually I'm sortta conflicted about a grant now, how can I reciprocate? You have helped me and so many others, thanks
Hi Mark, The online website is getting a dramatic new update with some courses that I have worked on for over 6 months now. This will blow anything out of the water that I have done on youtube. The content is much deeper and more to the point. It should be out in month.
I have a retaining wall on my backyard and the previous owner planted a tree that pushed a section of the wall forward, like you mentioned in your video. The tilting has u shape curve viewing from the top. The wall built with limestone/concrete gravity blocks and is about 7 fts height.. The wall was shared across several properties and there wasn't much space for digging equipment to access (bobcat, etc.). I cut the tree to prevent it from growing further when I bought the property and I reasoned that the remaing root would keep the wall in current state, since it may cost a fortune to tear down the whole thing and repair it. When would i know that will become a danger and what should I do?
''God bless and go get'em''... love it
Thanks!
I can't believe you made a video about retaining walls in your neck o' the woods WITHOUT mentioning freeze/thaw effect.
Great vid though! Hopefully I can catch up with you guys at GIE this year.
I have been really enjoying your informational videos. I’m wondering if you have one that would help in our particular situation.
We have a camp way up in the mountains in Utah and the roads are very steep and winding and hard to get in conventional heavy equipment.
We bought the place and it has an existing wall but it is showing Signs of sagging. I can send a couple pictures. Wondering if you could give us a couple suggestions on what we could do to possibly use or alter the existing in environment to help support or save the wall. Thanks.
I love watching your videos
Thanks Aaron😎👍
Stanley, great video. Just had a break wall fail do to 130km winds pushing water from Lake Erie. The erosion behind the break wall allowing the wall to be pushed back. Any thoughts of how i should repair?
Hello. we are wondering about french drain installs and product alternatives for small bendable tubes. We are also curious about using older and equally effective methods of retaining earth than concrete. On the otherside of the spectrum, can you comment on the use of earthbags as a retainting wall ?
I live in Florida (all sand) and am installing a 3ft retaining wall in my back yard. I was looking at an old castle anchor 9D block. What's your take on that product?
When I walk by a retaining wall that is actually standing straight up - not leaning - and it looks like a heavy load on the other side, I get a sense of magic being in effect. A relatively thin wall with a heavy load pressing on it from one side, and it doesn't lean over or collapse. How is that done?
It's nice to hear the reasoning behind these constructs, thanks for good videos.
I would like to see a video of you building a retaining wall in my backyard
interesting topic. do you know also about gabions retaining walls, metal baskets with rocks, reasons for failure?
I have an old wood tie retaining wall that is possibly as old as my house, (30+ years) and there is a big tree 40-50 ft high only a couple feet from the edge of the existing wall. Over the next few years I plan on terracing the back yard to reclaim some square footage from the slope as well as replace the wood tie with concrete block, should I plan on taking out that tree before replacing that wood tie?
I would be interested to hear more about those L-shape concrete retaining walls.
👍😎
So is you use 3/4" clear rock for the space behind your wall, how do you keep fines from washing into the spaces between the 3/4" rock, and clogging/filling them up?
Hi I'm William the boy with the stigga villa and I've been watching your videos for about a year now and I've thought about getting some more equipment so I can make a Business out of it and I'm inspired by you thanks for all the cool videos
Thanks William- good luck and go get em!
i have been looking to build a short, four feet max height retaining wall. the two key things i was planning on focusing on were the base and the drainage. i plan to use bags of redi mix concrete for this. I'm not trying to be a cheap SOB, but even if i build this to a very robust standard, i can do this for half of what contractors are quoting me for poured concrete. do you have any feedback to share for this type of wall design/construction. thanks very much
Agree with you on maintaining good points about drainage I noticed that you didn't use a cinderblock wall with rebar and concrete feel before you put the decorative stones wondering why
I use dedicated landscape retaining wall blocks that are engineered specifically for that site.
Bought my first house it's on a hill slopes going perpendicular to each other with a driveway along the gentler slope.
The retaining wall along the driveway has a crack due to a tree planted way too close.
I will be taking down that tree and working on the wall in spring should I build a whole new wall or is there a way to fix a severe crack in a cement wall?
I’m thinking about doing a tire retaining wall because I don’t have money for brick but can I use the same concepts and apply them appropriately?
I have slope. appeared my house had a above ground pool in the 80's . I'm trying to be safe building and build the retaining wall with concrete bags and rebar. using gravel in the bottom, cover with fabric and drainage pipe. my question is to release all that water I'm planning to dig and do a box that will drain the water towards the creek. what other thing do I need to make sure the 6ft wall won't collapse towards the pool.
I am building a multi-tiered retaining wall with 11 gauge steel sheeting. How would you recommend constructing it as far as post depth, lateral anchor, and drainage methods?
Do you have any videos on putting a 1.8m high on top of a 1m high timber retaining wall?, that would be super helpful
What kind of 3/4 inch gravel did you say you recommend? And I think I also want to put in some drainage pipes - the black ones with holes in them to guide water to the outside edges away from the brunt of my retaining wall.
You are smart man!
Thanks!
How high should the 3/4 inch aggregate AND screening cloth go up if building a 5 ft Armour rock wall? I just had mine done, and they only did 3/5 up behind my wall & the topsoil is eroding already (in just 2 weeks). Now we have a new deck & I'm worried it will shift as it's only on those 4x4 post blocks. Tyvm
Most of my retaining walls fail because the Kool Aid Man crashes through them.
We have a railroad tie retaining wall basically holding our 2400 SF house up from a creek which drops about 15 feet almost straight down below the wall. The ties have rotted and are leaning out towards the creek and I'm trying to decide whether to try and fix the old one or go ahead and build a new wall a few feet below the existing I get that concrete or even block would be better but the ties are much cheaper..Any advice?
can i add to the top of a retaining wall? current wall is 3 feet at tallest point and rather than putting a fence (it would be awkward) i need more hight to keep dog in. need at least 4 feet but 5 would be better.
Im on the board of a townhouse association and we have a 6’ wood retaining wall that is failing not leaning but some timbers are rotting. I know replacement is best but it is only a few feet from patios and 8’ from buildings on one side and a small creek on the other side leaving very little to work or get any kind of equipment in. Is there any way to repair,shore up or reinforce the existing wall. Any thoughts would be appreciated.
Hey. Nice hat. Great vid. Lol
Thanks!
i have a poured concrete wall on my property that is leaning and cracked, could i send you pictures and get some advice?
we have a large steep backyard sloping down toward the house that has 3 levels of retaining walls, either dry sandstone blocks or brick/cement rendered. The final retaining wall at house level (brick/cement rendered), which is approx 3ft high and 7m long is starting to crack close to either ends, pushing out the wall in the centre. There is no where for water to be released on the sides as their are brick stairs on either side, and no weep holes at the front - what is the best action to try and save the wall
Do you have any advice about putting a fence on a retaining wall. I’m having a 4 foot wall built and I don’t want my kids to use it as a launching pad to fly down the hill LOL so thinking of putting a fence on it. It is carrying a load from a hill
Got any information about putting dead men in 8 by 8 by 16 cinder block retainer walls?
I noticed on the last clip of this video there was no felt behind the stone backfill. Is this normal? We do it to help control dirt from clogging up the stone drainage. Are we wrong in doing this?
KEEP EM COMING STAN!! You heading to GIE?
Great topic. One vid I would love to see is what do you do if you have a bowed basement wall? If I dig it out down to the base footing and true the wall. what do I use to fill it and do I waterproof the wall first? Thanks, if this is something you have knowledge on I will glad to here you take.
Yes- I can do a video on that- I have fixed them in the past.
Thank you.
On my friends property I noticed that she has a large shed built on the ground and about 6 feet out from that - the ground is falling away. How would you make a retaining wall that can support the structure and the land from falling away during monsoon seasons?
Can I use 3/4 inch decorative landscape gravel from Home Depot as drainage?