# Replacing retaining wall in front of old wall - options?



## dc300m01 (May 17, 2016)

Pics time.

Here are the dimensions.


















Top view to show grading









Where it meets the foundation









The sections weren't even tied together. you can also see the cracks that formed. 


















Old wall behind the soon to be old wall









Section closest to the house









and here's the 2nd project. The wife wants to remove the tree. I'm fighting it.









Can see it bowing out


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## dc300m01 (May 17, 2016)

Well it's been a month and a half. Figured Id give an update. 

There was a lot more full cinder blocks and pieces of cinder used as backfill than I thought. I have 2 piles of just scrap cinder block that was thrown in there plus 10ish full cinder blocs. Some spots had 2 rows of block! I'm leaving in the cinder that's closest to the house. That is still a solid chunk of wall and it's leaning in with no signs of moving. Less stress on my new wall. I did have to hammer out a good 2 inches of concrete where the floor drain is to make room for the new block. 

In addition, they used a ton of river rock too. Some small pieces, some football sized. It made for a miserable time digging the trench. Some of the larger rocks were under the driveway, which is old brick. Needless to say, I need to learn how to lay brick now to fix the pieces that came up.

Also had a few tree roots, some 1in in diameter. There are two massive trees, one about 40 ft away, the other 20 ft away. Clearing these also pulled up some brick. 

As for drainage, I drilled a horizontal 1in diameter hole in the concrete of the floor drain that runs the length in front of the garage. It worked perfectly as this was the lowest point in the wall.

I just roughly put the cap stone on to see if I had enough. It worked out and even the slight curves worked. I bought all of the block from Craigslist and it was used as a planter.. So the fact that it works but is not perfect is OK with me right now. 

What it looked like after removing the old wall. 









After removing the bushes and some of the cinder backfill. 









After drilling the hole for drainage and hammering out some of the concrete. Luckily my neighbor had a pro Bosch rotary hammer/drill. 









Almost finished. 









That downspout now discharges right onto the top of the wall. I'm going to get a bigish pot and partially bury it behind the wall and empty the water in there. Will build an overflow and probably and valve for discharge to use for watering. That downspout is for a very small roof and doesn't get a lot of water. 









Will start on the smaller upper tier of the wall soon, then put a small flower bed between the two.


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