Home »
How safe is your retaining wall?
Construction Questions
By Menno Dueck
“Who built this retaining wall?” is the question that Grant, a veteran backhoe operator wants to know. Why? It was this incorrectly built wall that could have badly injured him or even cost him his life.
Frank’s retaining wall (built by a previous owner) was eight feet high and 10 feet long and held back the front yard, supported one end of the deck and butted up to the house. With that much height, there was plenty of room to stand under the deck on the gravel bed.
The story begins when Grant gets a call to locate a broken water main line, which enters Frank’s house under the deck, near the corner of the house and retaining wall. The backhoe is small enough to work under the deck to do the initial dig and Grant piles the excavated gravel and soil away from the retaining wall. Grant, using best practices, is doing the final excavation by hand when he hears an unfamiliar sound. The hair goes up on the back of his neck as instinct sets in; he leaps out of the excavated hole and scrambles up onto the dirt pile as the retaining wall collapses right where he had been digging.
When the dust settles and Grant’s adrenalin levels return to normal he is shocked at what he sees. The retaining wall had been basically “free standing” as it had not been attached to the house foundation at all. It had been built on footings, but the footings were sitting on soil that had not been properly compacted. The combination of water seeping into the ground from the broken pipe and the excavation work increased the instability of the wall and was the “straw that broke the camels back”…in this case it could have been Grant’s back.
The previous homeowner had hired a friend of a friend to help build the wall. It’s obvious they really had no clue of how to do it properly. And because they did not apply for a permit there were no inspections done.
So…do you know who built your retaining wall?
(Based on a true story, names changed)
Submitted by: Menno Dueck, Ask Menno Construction Consulting, Dueck Enterprises Inc.
250-426-5460 www.dueckenteprises.com
