The Wall

One project that had to wait until everything really dried out was a retaining wall in the front that would give me back a few precious feet of front yard and clean up an ugly slope. It would also use up the sidewalk pieces I had been saving and give me another spot to dispose of concrete pieces.

The first step was to remove and lay out all the pieces I had available to build with so that I could see and pick among them.

Then I had to dig out the dirt, and debris from the area where the wall would go. This dirt was mostly piled behind the working area. One complication was my sewer clean out pipe which was right next to the sidewalk and stuck up about 8" above the sidewalk level. Because of this I decided to create a toe wall the same height, along the sidewalk. The actual retaining wall will be set back 24" from the sidewalk, as is common in this neighborhood.

After digging down 10" and laying a base of concrete/gavel. I dry laid a row of sidewalk pieces for position, using the sidewalk as a brace. Once I'd picked the pieces I wanted, they were mortared in place. Then a second layer of concrete rubble was mortared in place behind these face pieces, making the wall about 8" thick.

Finally, I used some of the saved pavers as cap stones for this short wall.

Next I dug down and back another 2'for the second, taller wall and a rubble area behind it. As before, the face pieces were selected and mortared in place, then a second layer of concrete pieces was mortared to the back. The back wall was thicker this time, about 12-16" total. and the rest of the space was backfilled with fist-sized and smaller rubble pieces. I also added a series of vertical rebar to the back wall as I mortared it. There are several drainage holes at the base of the wall, but they may be below the surface when the front planter is filled.

When the first level was in place, I also positioned three rows of horizontal rebar as well. Each row locks into drilled holes drilled into the side retaining wall and will be buried in the mortared rubble portion of the wall. The top two came down again to make it easier to work and will go up when that level is reached.

So over time the wall grew...

and grew...

and grew...

The wall got gradually thinner as it got taller until it was about 8-10". At each stage a back wall was mortared on and rubble added, until the rubble was about 16" from what would be the surface. That was when I ran out of rubble this size. Then I added a layer of some smaller rubble and began sifting and back filling dirt into the remaining space. Maybe I'll even manage to plant something.

As the ground and wall were leveled I also added bases for the fence posts that will eventually go in to enclose the area and keep me from accidentally falling over the edge.

The weather has changed, giving me a short break, but the last steps will be the finish sifting the dirt, cap the remaining piece of wall, and build the fence. I should be able to finish at least the wall and the dirt before the end of the year.