Residential Retaining Wall Design

Raised garden bed retaining wall ideas.

Residential retaining wall design.

Even small retaining walls have to contain enormous loads. Terrace gardens date back to ancient times and are still a beautiful but rarely seen luxury in modern times. There are many things that need to go into building a retaining wall before the first shovel of dirt is ever moved. Please note that the gravity wall chart provided has specific heights for specific site and soil conditions.

If you are not sure of your site conditions we recommend being conservative with your retaining wall heights or use geogrid in your retaining wall. Gravity walls rely on their own weight and setback to hold up the soil behind them. To mark a free form layout use a rope or hose to outline the shape. By definition a retaining wall is a structure that is used for supporting the soil mass laterally so that the soil on different sides of the wall is retained at.

Learn more about gravity wall construction. Avoid having downspouts pointed at the retaining wall and if it s against the house keep soil and mulch well below the siding. Based on our example in figure a 1 we have the forces due to soil pressure due to water and surcharge load to consider. Follow the block manufacturer s instructions for wall height limits.

Sketches of the retaining wall forces should be considered to properly distinguish the different forces acting on our retaining wall as tackled in the previous article retaining wall. How to build a retaining wall. A 4 foot high 15 foot long wall could be holding back as much as 20 tons of saturated soil. Anchor wall offers the latest innovations in concrete block retaining and freestanding wall systems.

Use the plan design menu above to check out all of the information we have on how to build. That s because most residential retaining walls have poor drainage and many aren t built to handle the hillside they re supposed to hold back. If you re looking for a retaining wall around your cabin garage or backyard patio area consider a stacked stone design. By using the information we have on building retaining walls you will get everything you need to plan design and build the perfect retaining wall project.

They ll add color texture and a rustic feel to the space. Your retaining wall design will determine how you mark the area. Contemporary terrace gardens and retaining walls tend to be much smaller and modest in most residential landscaping designs and while some are works of masonry others are simply stacked stones or concrete steps we set out the 10 retaining wall materials here.