Retaining wall with bricks - what orientation?

[gaz1]

PD. that's interesting , do you know if red engineering brick come in frost ratings .. 14 yrs ago we spent a lot of money on so called class one engineering bricks to have a professional master builder make 22 off 4x4 foot 3 foot high raised veg flower beds in block of four or six beds .
Six yrs ago they have started blowing on all exposed faces, the mortar has also crumbled away so the soldier course at the top has started falling out .
Your thoughts & those of others would be much appreciated .

no brick or stone lasts with blow out

however aberdeens stone is stronger than uk stone even yorkshire stone blows out as i have the stone flags in the garden as a boundary wall there also thick weathered

the only product over the years that does last is concrete blocks but even they shatter/spald,blowout after many years as a garden wall

the worst product is breezeblocks

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

PD. that's interesting , do you know if red engineering brick come in frost ratings

I'm not a brick expert...but when we did our front garden I did a lot of research on the bricks. What I found was bricks come in varying degrees of frost rating...the highest rating can be used anywhere but others are more suited to specific exposures.

I'll need to check but I think F2 is what we used...at the time (12+ years ago) they were super expensive....can only imagine what they are now!

I must admit I always assumed engineering bricks were F2 as they're used below ground?

 

[badabec]

Vertical concrete slab?

 

[8ob]

Getting a retaining wall wrong is a world of pain. They need a decent footing , built with concrete blocks and faced off with engineering bricks. Ties left out the back of the blocks and lean mix backfill. that will last.

Like this tennis court retainer we did.

 

[Welderpaul]

Getting a retaining wall wrong is a world of pain. They need a decent footing , built with concrete blocks and faced off with engineering bricks. Ties left out the back of the blocks and lean mix backfill. that will last.

Like this tennis court retainer we did.

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Very tidy job Bob.

When retaining walls fail, quite often it it not the acutal wall itself, it is the foundation overturning. The foundation has a rotational load on it, not just like a house foundation where the load acts vertically.

 

[voipio]

Soil, no matter how stable it might appear, behaves as a slow moving liquid over time, driven by mechanical influences coming from things like rain, drought, frost, vibration, root growth, worm and animal burrowing. With typical soil density of around 2 tons per cubic metre, that slow movement will ultimately result in a lot of pressure being exerted on a retaining wall. It may take many years for the accumulated force against the wall to rise to the point where it becomes a real issue. The wall construction, and distribution of forces will influence how the wall reacts. It may simply slowly tip over, or it may bulge.

 

[Migmac]

I did my retaining walls with natural stone. Six foot high at the back of the house and three foot tall at the front. Friend was an ex dyker. He showed me the ropes. This was in 1991. We sold the house in 2002 and it’s back on the market at the moment. I’ve looked at the house particulars and the retaining walls are still standing. No rushed bits, still the way I built it. It was a huge job, all the stone trailered in, loaded and unloaded by hand. One ton of stone per yard of wall. The wall was a yard deep

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

One ton of stone per yard of wall. The wall was a yard deep

Can't beat the brute force of sheer mass...it's like the military saying "quantity has a quality of its own"

 

[Porkypine]

...it's like the military saying "quantity has a quality of its own"

Wasn't it Joe Stalin said that ?
I'm terrible at any kind of brick work, I'd just shutter it off and tip a load of concrete down t'hole

 

[Migmac]

Can't beat the brute force of sheer mass...it's like the military saying "quantity has a quality of its own"

Yep, probably over kill but it’s stood the test of time

 

[8ob]

I did my retaining walls with natural stone. Six foot high at the back of the house and three foot tall at the front. Friend was an ex dyker. He showed me the ropes. This was in 1991. We sold the house in 2002 and it’s back on the market at the moment. I’ve looked at the house particulars and the retaining walls are still standing. No rushed bits, still the way I built it. It was a huge job, all the stone trailered in, loaded and unloaded by hand. One ton of stone per yard of wall. The wall was a yard deep

That’s a bit like the gabion baskets filled with stone, fines wash slowly wash in from behind and bind it all together, we installed a load of that around a lake to retain the bank. In time it looks very natural.

Bob

 

[Migmac]

That’s a bit like the gabion baskets filled with stone, fines wash slowly wash in from behind and bind it all together, we installed a load of that around a lake to retain the bank. In time it looks very natural.

Bob

Indeed the fines do. I got instructed to pin the face stones to stop movement. Spend days walking about with a bucket full
of small flat stones and pushing them in to fill the gaps. You’re supposed to do it as you place the big stones but I thought I’d get away with out doing it. I was wrong , my pal saw what I was doing and bollocked me

 

[Pigeon_Droppings2]

Yep, probably over kill but it’s stood the test of time

Built to last...I do like a good bit of over engineering .

There's nothing worse than skimping on a job and then having to redo it...actually there is ...someone else skimping and me having to redo it!!!!

 

[brightspark]

well if the soil is up against them on the inside the mortar will get and stay damp right through and the frost will blow them apart the bricks arent porous but the mortar is

 

[Dapph2]

well if the soil is up against them on the inside the mortar will get and stay damp right through and the frost will blow them apart the bricks arent porous but the mortar is

So painting the inside where the soil will be with a bitumastic rubberised paint is the answer to that?

 

[brightspark]

So painting the inside where the soil will be with a bitumastic rubberised paint is the answer to that?

it will help a lot but needs to be dry for it to stick

 

[Dapph2]

it will help a lot but needs to be dry for it to stick

The stuff I have is said to stick to any wet surface it was labeled as a flat roof repair compound & has fine fibre glass strands in it . Where I put it on the wet garage floor & wet block wall 9 or more years ago it's still there and the garage is dry all year round .