Planter wall moved/join cracked

[dan_l]

Hi,

We had a planter built last year and as you can see from the picture where the walls join it has cracked. It appears that the back wall has moved backwards. The house is a new build built around 18 months ago and where the wall was built last year the ground was new and very soggy which it isn't now so I'm hoping any settlement issues will be better now.
Could somebody give me some advice on the most efficient way to fix this and if there is anyway to refinforce it to ideally stop it happening again.

Any help really appreciated.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

That's quite a fail, is there a foundation? Are the blocks tied in at the corners (dig some of the slate out and have a look), is it just full from the bottom to the top with slate? How high is it? Got a pic from further away? The house was built by who, a national developer or as a one off by a smaller firm or what? Was the wall built by them? I'd hazard that any planter higher than about 400mm built in single skin (like the rear of the planter) is destined to fail.

 

[dan_l]

Hi,

Thanks for the reply. I have attached a picture futher away that shows the whole planter. The wall wasn't built by the house builder it was a local company, the house is absolutely fine. There was footings/foundations done and the blocks were tied in at the corner but it looks to have snapped them. Like I mentioned above last year all of the grass and area around it was very soggy as the land the house was built on was quite soft and the developer said it needs time for channels (I think) to happen in the ground for the drainage to be better and to be fair this year the garden isn't soggy at all but we have this issue with the wall. The wall was built in April last year and was fine up until winter when this appears to have happened.

Thanks,
Dan

 

[dan_l]

Here's the pic

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

The paving looks like it's all over the place?

 

[dan_l]

Yes thats a seperate issue with the cement not setting correctly which the company are going to fix but need to get this wall sorted first.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Are they not going to investigate the wall too then? If they couldn't get a patio right .....

 

[dan_l]

Its a different company

 

[dan_l]

The company who did the wall I cant get hold of so what Im looking for is if there is a way that this can be fixed without that whole back wall coming down as it only looks to have moved in that corner, you can see in the join on the other end that is still connected fine so ideally if there is a way where it can be cut out and something to reinforce.

 

[^woody^]

That appears to be related to shrinkage of the wall panels and/or a quality issue, not movement of any foundation.

If so, its likely contracted to its new size and the crack can be filled. However there is still potential for there to be some ongoing seasonal movement which can create hairline cracking. So a fix with both rigid and flexible joint should be made.

 

[dan_l]

Hi

Thanks that makes a bit more sense as the gap between the back wall and the fence still looks the same so on that front it doesnt actually look like the wall has moved and both walls do seem level. Could you give any recommendetails for what to use for the joint?

Thanks,
Dan