A concrete garden retaining wall is primarily built to hold or support a wall of dirt which would otherwise fall or slide down a natural slope. They have been commonly used for many years in communities situated in mountains where the roads and houses are built on hilly or sloping terrain. Nowadays, more and more modern homes are using them for both aesthetic and functional reasons. Here are some of the steps on how you can plan for the construction of the retaining wall that you or a professional landscaper would be building in your outdoor space.
1. Be sure to check the building codes in your area by contacting the appropriate local agencies and departments before starting to work on the project. There are a lot of states which require retaining walls to be higher than four feet and for them to be designed and constructed by licensed engineers to ensure that they would be stable and sturdy enough to prevent landslide and other erosion problems. Check if you need to secure a permit.
2. You would then need to determine the amount of pressure from the dirt that would be contained behind the retaining wall. You can get this information from the local Agricultural Extension Center or through the use of an online database which contains records of soil properties.
3. You should also measure the area that you need to contain or retain before starting to dig. Generally, concrete garden retaining walls should have a height of at least one foot to provide solid reinforcement.
4. If the type of soil that you need to retain is heavy or mainly clay, it would be best to add two to three inches to the wall’s thickness. You should also take into account the general weather and climate conditions of your area to determine whether or not you need to add one to two feet of wall below the surface.
Tue, Apr 12, 2011
Building