Retaining walls?

[Vinpetrol]

There was a 3m high H block wall perpendicular to the rear gardens of the houses below, no access to below.

engineer spec was remove and redo with cast in situ.

compromised spec was full excavate 1.4m behind wall, mass fill new footing tide in to old and L bars at front face, drill 50mm weep holes every 1m, install pipe through, then tide existing block wall in with load of screw in V ties the built new block laid flat back face to it and filled with concrete in 450mm lifts. Then clean gravel behind and muck away fill. Awkward Job with no room for anything.

At least you can sleep at night after following the engineering spec. To much risk to contractor doing jobs like this designing it from your own experience .
Fair enough with a free standing wall but not when they are retaining

 

[Storrsy]

If you get an engineer to design I'd imagine it's still open to debate who's liable in the event of a failure? The design or the installation. Could be a hard one to prove?

 

[6feetdown]

If you get an engineer to design I'd imagine it's still open to debate who's liable in the event of a failure? The design or the installation. Could be a hard one to prove?

If it was inspected by the engineer as work proceeded I would say the engineer

 

[Vinpetrol]

If you get an engineer to design I'd imagine it's still open to debate who's liable in the event of a failure? The design or the installation. Could be a hard one to prove?

If it’s hard to prove and you’ve built it to the engineers spec then what’s to worry about ?

 

[Giles]

If you get an engineer to design I'd imagine it's still open to debate who's liable in the event of a failure? The design or the installation. Could be a hard one to prove?

If you’ve built it as drawn and to relevant British standards that they specify then it’s on them. If you deviate or poor workmanship it’s on you

 

[Storrsy]

If you’ve built it as drawn and to relevant British standards that they specify then it’s on them. If you deviate or poor workmanship it’s on you

It'd be on me then

 

[Giles]

I looked at a job a “friend of the family whose a Industrisl heating engineer but done his own houses up” had messed up.

worse the client was a structural engineer who’d specified and supervised and been fobbed off by the “builder” used c25 concrete not c40 and just a litany of mistakes.
They’d pushed the corner of the garage in and there was still a roro skip outside with half full and weeds growing out of it

 

[V8Druid]

I looked at a job a “friend of the family whose a Industrisl heating engineer but done his own houses up” had messed up.

worse the client was a structural engineer who’d specified and supervised and been fobbed off by the “builder” used c25 concrete not c40 and just a litany of mistakes.
They’d pushed the corner of the garage in and there was still a roro skip outside with half full and weeds growing out of it

assume you walked away?

 

[GazCro]

I looked at a job a “friend of the family whose a Industrisl heating engineer but done his own houses up” had messed up.

worse the client was a structural engineer who’d specified and supervised and been fobbed off by the “builder” used c25 concrete not c40 and just a litany of mistakes.
They’d pushed the corner of the garage in and there was still a roro skip outside with half full and weeds growing out of it

Crying out for laddo round with ABC crusher that wall and start again.

 

[Giles]

assume you walked away?

Oh yeah ran a mile

 

[Furniss]

Been to look at a job this morning (existing customer) as part of a large job (or I wouldn't entertain it)there is a sloping garden that he wants terrassing out, meaning a curved retaining wall of about 60 meters long and approx 80cm - 1m high.
He has his mind set on new sleepers. Considering it's a curved wall and not even a constant radius I don't fancy dropping steels in as even with 2m long new sleepers it will look a bit 50p piece ish... so what's the best way ?

Concreted in on their end sounds time consuming?

 

[doobin]

Been to look at a job this morning (existing customer) as part of a large job (or I wouldn't entertain it)there is a sloping garden that he wants terrassing out, meaning a curved retaining wall of about 60 meters long and approx 80cm - 1m high.
He has his mind set on new sleepers. Considering it's a curved wall and not even a constant radius I don't fancy dropping steels in as even with 2m long new sleepers it will look a bit 50p piece ish... so what's the best way ?

Concreted in on their end sounds time consuming?

Quick enough to do and can be made 'retaining' by screwing a length of suitable flat stock across the backs, with hooks welded to that for ground anchors. However, you then have wood in contact with concrete and the ground, which will rot out much more quickly. You also waste a heck of a lot more of each sleeper.

Internal curves look OK, external look can look gash as you see the gaps.

 

[Furniss]

Quick enough to do and can be made 'retaining' by screwing a length of suitable flat stock across the backs, with hooks welded to that for ground anchors. However, you then have wood in contact with concrete and the ground, which will rot out much more quickly. You also waste a heck of a lot more of each sleeper.

Internal curves look OK, external look can look gash as you see the gaps.

External but slow radius.
Can use delta ms against back of sleepers to protect against damp.
All sounds time consuming.

Working holiday anyone

 

[Smiffy]

More time consuming and more rsjs but could you half the sleepers to each bend less pronounced.
The other option is use 1inch thick boards as a cladding that can follow the curve then use conc panels behind for the structural element

 

[GazCro]

More time consuming and more rsjs but could you half the sleepers to each bend less pronounced.
The other option is use 1inch thick boards as a cladding that can follow the curve then use conc panels behind for the structural element

May as well 9" block it and timber clad then.

 

[6feetdown]

Quick enough to do and can be made 'retaining' by screwing a length of suitable flat stock across the backs, with hooks welded to that for ground anchors. However, you then have wood in contact with concrete and the ground, which will rot out much more quickly. You also waste a heck of a lot more of each sleeper.

Internal curves look OK, external look can look gash as you see the gaps.

Just cut the back off 1 sleeper to close the gap

 

[doobin]

Just cut the back off 1 sleeper to close the gap

You mean cut at an angle? You could, but the beauty of steels apart from being far superior to wood uprights in engineering terms is that the steel hides the multitude of sins and requires no joinery skills that one can't perform with a chainsaw!

 

[6feetdown]

You mean cut at an angle? You could, but the beauty of steels apart from being far superior to wood uprights in engineering terms is that the steel hides the multitude of sins and requires no joinery skills that one can't perform with a chainsaw!

Yes cut the back off

 

[Furniss]

It's so slow a radius I don't think it would be necessary.
Had a quick look at some 1.5m x 50cm x 3cm thick slate slabs that a bloke I know supplies.
Kicked back a bit and drained well behind they may do the job a bit quicker.
And might tie in well with his zinc cladding extension.

 

[GazCro]

It's so slow a radius I don't think it would be necessary.
Had a quick look at some 1.5m x 50cm x 3cm thick slate slabs that a bloke I know supplies.
Kicked back a bit and drained well behind they may do the job a bit quicker.
And might tie in well with his zinc cladding extension.

They'd want to be thicker than that, at least double thickness imo.