Hi
2 years ago my sister had her garden lowered by around 80cm to the same level as her patio, which resulted in all the gardens around her being at a higher level level. To support the sides she had a builder in who suggested having sleepers put in, which she did. Unfortunately the space between the sleepers and the egde of her garden was about 1.5 to 2ft (the builder said he coudnt put them any closer because going too close to the edge of the garden/fence would result in more pressure on the sleepers???), this resulted in her losing a significant amount of footage from her lawn.
This year some of the sleepers started cracking and bowing and looked like they would collapse so she had another builder in to look at having a retaining wall built.
when he started the work it turned out that their was no drainage at all and no waterproof membrane etc behind the sleepers, also the sleepers had not been treated and the posts he used to support the sleepers were on the inside, between the sleepers and the fencing and they were rotten. Also the garden got heavily waterlogged.
She gave the builder the go ahead to build the restaining wall and to sort out the drainage problem in her garden. Halfway through the job their was a trust issue with the builder but ill spare you the deatails. the end result is that because of the trust issue she is now doubting the work that has been carried out.
which is as follows:-
The wall extends both sides of her garden and the back of her garden, at all sides her garden is lower than her neighbours gardens. The height of the wall ranges from 400cm-800cm either side and 800cm at the back.
It is constructed from 2 skins, the back skin consists of some sort of block, layed on their sides and built up to 2 brick levels from the top, here they are finished off with bricks. The front skin is from house bricks. the 2 skins are joined together 2 bricks from the top with house bricks. The 2 skins under this 2 brick level are not joined together in any way but are butted up against each other, with a small gap no more than 2mm in places between them.
Their is a concrete foundation below the wall which extends about 150 mm either side of the wall(only checked in one place).
Their is a small gap of 4-5 inches between the wall and the bottom of the fences, this was left because the builder said that room would need to be left for the fences to move?. This space had been backfilled from top to bottom with sand, at first the builder was not going to back-fill it with anything and just leave a gap, but when questioned further he said he would fill it with something and the sand seemed to be the closest thing at hand(with a little cement thrown in for good measure).
Their is no waterproofing membrane or cover on any brickwork and at the moment no drainage. He did say he would put weeping holes in for drainage when he had finished.
Also the wall is sloping inwards in most places towards the lawn but only by 5-10mm.
oh and the length of the wall is 25ft at the sides and 37ft at the back.
Would you say that the retaining wall he has built is sufficient to do the job?
Should their be expansion joints in the wall, and if so how can i spot them?(the side wall is partialy constructed, 1/2 way to finished height at the moment and i cant see any expansion joints)
would a drainage pipe been better behind the wall due to the problem with her garden becoming waterlogged (he was going to do the drainage in the garden too but i dont have details of how he was going to do this).
Is their anything else wrong with the build?
Sorry about the long winded explanation but i wanted to give you as much info as possible.
2 years ago my sister had her garden lowered by around 80cm to the same level as her patio, which resulted in all the gardens around her being at a higher level level. To support the sides she had a builder in who suggested having sleepers put in, which she did. Unfortunately the space between the sleepers and the egde of her garden was about 1.5 to 2ft (the builder said he coudnt put them any closer because going too close to the edge of the garden/fence would result in more pressure on the sleepers???), this resulted in her losing a significant amount of footage from her lawn.
This year some of the sleepers started cracking and bowing and looked like they would collapse so she had another builder in to look at having a retaining wall built.
when he started the work it turned out that their was no drainage at all and no waterproof membrane etc behind the sleepers, also the sleepers had not been treated and the posts he used to support the sleepers were on the inside, between the sleepers and the fencing and they were rotten. Also the garden got heavily waterlogged.
She gave the builder the go ahead to build the restaining wall and to sort out the drainage problem in her garden. Halfway through the job their was a trust issue with the builder but ill spare you the deatails. the end result is that because of the trust issue she is now doubting the work that has been carried out.
which is as follows:-
The wall extends both sides of her garden and the back of her garden, at all sides her garden is lower than her neighbours gardens. The height of the wall ranges from 400cm-800cm either side and 800cm at the back.
It is constructed from 2 skins, the back skin consists of some sort of block, layed on their sides and built up to 2 brick levels from the top, here they are finished off with bricks. The front skin is from house bricks. the 2 skins are joined together 2 bricks from the top with house bricks. The 2 skins under this 2 brick level are not joined together in any way but are butted up against each other, with a small gap no more than 2mm in places between them.
Their is a concrete foundation below the wall which extends about 150 mm either side of the wall(only checked in one place).
Their is a small gap of 4-5 inches between the wall and the bottom of the fences, this was left because the builder said that room would need to be left for the fences to move?. This space had been backfilled from top to bottom with sand, at first the builder was not going to back-fill it with anything and just leave a gap, but when questioned further he said he would fill it with something and the sand seemed to be the closest thing at hand(with a little cement thrown in for good measure).
Their is no waterproofing membrane or cover on any brickwork and at the moment no drainage. He did say he would put weeping holes in for drainage when he had finished.
Also the wall is sloping inwards in most places towards the lawn but only by 5-10mm.
oh and the length of the wall is 25ft at the sides and 37ft at the back.
Would you say that the retaining wall he has built is sufficient to do the job?
Should their be expansion joints in the wall, and if so how can i spot them?(the side wall is partialy constructed, 1/2 way to finished height at the moment and i cant see any expansion joints)
would a drainage pipe been better behind the wall due to the problem with her garden becoming waterlogged (he was going to do the drainage in the garden too but i dont have details of how he was going to do this).
Is their anything else wrong with the build?
Sorry about the long winded explanation but i wanted to give you as much info as possible.
