Retaining wall construction please advise

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johnv713

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i,m building a low retaining wall(3-4 stacked blocks) in my back yard. It wont be retaining much soil, maybe half a foot or so,, im doing this to hide the uglies behind it :) Do i need to use gravels? Can i just tamp & level the soil and start stacking?
 
Only if you expect it to be unstable and overturn.
 
Keep in mind its not going to retain anything. Id be using mason glue and its only about 2.5ft in height so not sure how it would topple over thanks
 
Murphy's Law; What can go wrong, will.

And you as the property owner are liable.
 
I would not glue them if you have any chance you might want to take it down and do it right later
 
I would say it has a lot to do where you live and the likely hood of frost and the type of soil you have.


I built a little raised fire pit / fireplace out behind the workshop out of old bricks I just loose stacked. Every spring it looks a little crooked and I straighten it up for the next year.


I wouldn’t glue them you are only talking 3 blocks high. If you want to take the quick way you might have to adjust them here and there over the years. If it gets bad maybe take them out do a footing and put them back.
 
Really, how hard is it to throw a little gravel behind them? You would probably be fine but why not do it better? The time you spent asking would have been made up.
 
Well i tamped the soil ,add one inch of paver sand , then tamped again. Will that hold? I want to do it the right way but having guests over this saturday so hopefully thats adequate.
 
Your location, soil conditions, grade would help. You want to be able to drain an water that accumulates behind the wall out to daylight. Usually you backfill with gravel protected by landscape fabric with a French drain at the bottom. The pre-cast wall blocks are designed to dry-stack together with the proper pitch to make a stable wall. Concrete footings are not usually required but a solid base of compacted stone along with the first course being almost completely buried. Here is a decent tutorial on the subject: http://www.hometime.com/Howto/projects/retain/rtn_1.htm
 
Since you're not retaining anything and I presume just using it as a divider, you should be fine with that base for now.
 
I finished it a few days ago with 2 blocks stacked instead of a high retaining wall. It was fun working in the Texas sun full blasted on my back :)
 
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