Excavate the trench to about 3 feet wide and to the desired depth generally 12 inches.
4 foot concrete retaining wall design.
A 4 foot high 15 foot long wall could be holding back as much as 20 tons of saturated soil.
And secure one row to the next with pins.
Tall walls create high potentially dangerous drop offs that may need a fence or other type of safety barrier.
With forces like these in play you should limit your retaining wall efforts to walls under 4 feet tall 3 feet for mortarless stone.
It is advisable to get local building department approval for the design however.
Line out the foundation trench on the ground.
Of compacted base 1 in.
Particularly retaining walls can assist you on keeping the soil on one side of the structure enabling a lower floor level on the other side of the wall.
Step succeeding courses back 3 4 in overlap vertical joints at least 4 in.
Double the wall height to 8 feet and you would need a wall that s eight times stronger to do the same job.
In the past years people frequently used concrete for inexpensive retaining wall ideas since it functions well solid and dependable.
Also as walls get taller they get exponentially more difficult to design and build.
In most states retaining wall designs taller than about four feet must be designed by or approved by a qualified licensed professional engineer.
Of leveling sand and half the height of the first course of blocks.
The typical installation procedure for a simple retaining wall less than 4 feet tall on good soil is described in this article.