Supporting wall. Construction technology

The video has subtitles in Russian, English, Greek, German and Albanian.
This video is versatile and can be useful no matter what retaining wall you are building and what kind of masonry you are using.
We are building a retaining wall from old and new natural natural stone by laying “dry” three meters from the house. The retaining wall will have a slope towards the house: on average 5 cm by 1.2 m of the wall height.
Any slope into the wall can be made, at any angle - at the discretion and taste of the customer. When choosing a steeper angle, the main thing to remember is that the higher the wall, the more the walls taper. Therefore, at the stage of designing the foundation, it is necessary to immediately lay down such a wall thickness from below so that at the highest point its thickness is at least 50-60 cm. The walls of the house can also narrow upwards. Retaining walls can be made without a slope. But if the slope of the retaining wall outward is unacceptable.
To begin with, we dug a trench for the foundation. We have a separate lesson on how to properly make a trench for a retaining wall, which can be viewed at the link stonesuccess.v...
When the foundation trench is ready, we begin to line the reinforcement with a square. We put 6 fittings into each square metal clamp. For the foundation, the reinforcement should not be very thick, 12-14 mm. If the rebar is too thick, then over time it will begin to rust and tear the foundation.
On top of the reinforcement, we pour concrete. The depth of pouring concrete depends on the height of the trench - in our case, we poured 20-25 cm of concrete.
In order for the concrete to fit tightly and fill the entire space of the trench, it must be vibrated when pouring. If you do not have a vibrator, you can vibrate the concrete with a regular stick, as we did.
The composition of the foundation solution:
- cement M500 - 25 kg,
- crushed stone of fraction 3x3 cm - 3 buckets of 18 liters each,
- elimination - 3 buckets of 18 liters.
Before pouring concrete, it is necessary to make a dump of small stones (you can use crushed stone), and of sand. Then the water will not stagnate at the base of the retaining wall.
We made a construction joint at the bend of the retaining wall.
The evenness of the retaining wall depends on how the first row of the wall is laid. And in order to lay the first row exactly, we put up beacons. Beacons should be placed from corner to corner or from corner to construction seam. Lighthouses can be wooden or metal.
When the beacons are level, you can start laying the first row. We recommend that you pull on two threads, and, focusing on them, start laying out the stones. So the first row turns out exactly.
We lay in rows.
The inner side of the retaining wall also needs to be carefully built, all stones should be laid out with rough masonry, and not covered with rubble or small stones. This ensures maximum strength of the retaining wall.
This is a necessary rule, because during heavy rains, the ground is eroded, and simply poured stones settle and disperse in different directions.
It also helps to avoid problems when changing the project.
There should be an empty space between the retaining wall and the soil. This space should be filled as the wall is built or after it is completed.
It is imperative to make holes in the retaining wall for water drainage.
Dry masonry can be made of different stones, processed and wild. But the principle of masonry remains the same, even if you build from granite, which is very difficult to process. In our portfolio you can see examples of such works:
GRANITE FORTRESS, 2015 stonesuccess.v...
GRANITE CONCRETE RETAINING WALL, 2015 stonesuccess.v...
GRANITE RETAINING WALL AND CLUB, 2015 stonesuccess.v...
You can see the detailed technology of dry masonry in our lesson at the link stonesuccess.v...
It is important that the bottom bed of the stone is flat. It should be laid parallel to the ground. At the same time, the top and side faces of the stone can be uneven: we then fill all the irregularities with small stones.
The composition of the backfilling solution:
cement M500 - 25 kg,
coarse screening - 6 buckets of 18 liters,
construction dry lime - by consistency, for better mortar plasticity.
What challenges did you face when building retaining walls? What was it built from and what technology?
For more information about the retaining wall, see the website stonesuccess.v...