Saturday, July 19, 2008

The Retaining Wall

Warning: this post will be quite boring for the majority of you.

I've run out of excuses... the OEM retaining wall keeping our back porch aloft is nearing a critical mass... every heavy rain brings more washed out dirt where the circa 500BC railroad ties have fallen away. I have no idea how to properly fix it (and stay liquid) so after some googling and prayer here we go.

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The plan involves the 3 (or 4) 4x4s anchored with concrete. I am using 2x8s attached with lag screws to act as the new retaining wall. I'm keeping the old wall and will backfill stone then dirt behind the 2x8s to the level of the old wall. Above that I'll use the same 4x4s to attach a privacy fence around the Hot Tub. The front portion is a 12' span and may need an additional post at the 6' point for strength. The side is a 10 footer that should be OK. If you have experience with this sort of thing please feel free to suggest stuff.

Retaining Wall.jpg

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

You were right. Thanks for the warning. Is nice to see you are ok though

Paul and Briana said...

Take the pictures to home depot. They will probably say to take out the remaining boards and start a foundation with concrete then set your rr ties to the concrete you may need to drive rebar through the boards and into the concrete. Just a thought:)

Heidi said...

That was the most thrilling thing I've experienced all day! Right after my morning coffee, the newspaper, my trip to Wal-mart, Kathy's open house, a latte ice cream bar I had, working on some photos, powerpoint, band "practice", taking out the trash, messing with Sarah's wonky computer, transposing music.......
:-)

Heidi said...

Of couse I'm kidding...I know nothing about such things and would probably have ignored it until I was tumbling down the hill after the deck collapsed thinking to myself, "Gee I should have fixed that!"

Painter el Cinco said...

yeah, but you probably know what a 4x4 is...Diane is still wondering why I would build a retaining wall with Jeeps.