Have a wall that is leaning forward? Repair Your Retaining Wall

Modes of failure vary when looking at repairing a retaining wall. Depending on the type of retaining wall, the approach to repair is best decided by either an experinced geotechnical engineer or an experienced retaining wall specialist.

The beginning of failure. This retaining wall, although small, is not capable of retaining the soil behind. This is made worse by having to also hold up the fence above.

As most retaining walls in Auckland are made from timber, they are typically a cantilever system which utilises vertically-placed posts or sleepers to hold the retained embankment. There are mainly three types of failure with timber sleeper retaining walls; rotation, corrosion (rot and termite damage) and tree roots.

Rotation, in this case due to tree roots, also affects concrete block retaining walls.

Following is a before and after repair job that we carried out. The original retainer, although built with treated pine, was termite ridden and rotten from moisture/ dampness. This was removed and replaced with a smooth, off form grey concrete sleeper wall which uses galvanised steel beams.

Before…

…After

The replacement retained earth sleeper wall also featured our heavy duty fence brackets to allow for rapid fence installation.

Contact retained earth for more details.

Want to see some of our Past Projects?

Although we are relatively new to Auckland, we have been operating in other countries for many years. See our Google Site for some further pictures and information.

 

Need a Gabion or a Wire Wall? What is the difference?

SO what is the difference? Not much at all. The gabion was the basic idea that centuries of design and implementation has shaped into a highly effective engineering device used to stabilise grade separations in soft to poor soil conditions. The gabion units also perform exceedingly well in seismic areas due to their ability to deform without losing structure.

When used in optimal soil conditions, the benefits of the gabion are well-known. As with anything though, gravity wins and the gabion wall is limited in its height vs cost comparison. This is due to the requirement that the higher you go, the more earth you are retaining (the higher the load), and therefore, the thicker the gabion wall needs to be.

This is where the wire wall or steepened earth wall comes in.

By replacing gabion units that would be required to increase the density or thickness of the wall with extensible soil reinforcements, either steel or synthetic, one is able to build a ‘cohesive-block’ type soil wall, otherwise known as a mechanically stabilised earth wall or reinforced soil structure.

Contact retained earth for more on your wire wall or gabion wall requirements.

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