Making A Concrete Retaining Wall

A simple cost effective way to make a retaining wall is to stack 60 lb.

Making a concrete retaining wall.

Over time the bags will degrade and you will have an elegant and permanent retaining wall. Without a pressure relief system the weight of the water in the soil would crack or even buckle the wall. A poured wall is much stronger and generally last many more years than a block wall. Avoid having downspouts pointed at the retaining wall and if it s against the house keep soil and mulch well below the siding.

If you want to build a concrete retaining wall you should consider pouring the wall rather than making it out of concrete blocks. Here are the steps tom ralston owner of tom ralston concrete in santa cruz ca follows when pouring a retaining wall. Block retaining walls are generally the same as freestanding block walls but with a few important differences. Building a retaining wall in the conventional ways is not a trivial matter.

Constructed correctly a form for a homemade wall will not only retain the concrete. How to build a concrete wall prep work. Pouring a concrete retaining wall is not that difficult and this easy to follow how to guide will show you just what to do. A retaining wall must provide a way to release the water that builds up in the slope behind it.

There are block retaining walls stone retaining walls and poured concrete retaining walls but these can be quite complicated and expensive. Then pour your concrete inside the form using a chute or hose attached to the mixer. The wall we built was a weekend long project and an exhausting one at that. It took a day to rip out the old collapsing retaining wall to dig farther into the hill to provide room for the backfill gravel and to help unload materials.

When installed properly concrete offers much more room for customization than any other retaining wall material. Retaining walls can be constructed using a variety of materials from poured concrete and large timbers to natural stones even bricks. When doing your own concrete work knowing how to form a homemade concrete wall is an essential skill. The interlocking retaining wall block can be used to build walls up to 24 to 36 inches high depending on the size of the block.

Poured concrete retaining walls can be colored textured accented with embedded objects and much more. Rather than messing around with mortar they lay the walls down like lego pieces using concrete while it s still in the bag. For diy purposes opt for manufactured blocks that are. If the form is constructed incorrectly the concrete can blow out the form breaking it apart and creating an enormous mess while wasting much of your money.

So diyers have come up with an interesting trick. That s right the idea is that. To make the wall as strong as possible pour the concrete in layers no higher than 20 inches working from 1 end of the wall to the.