Demolish and replace an exterior retaining wall

[Justin J.]

Hello BP,

Does anyone have any experience demolishing and rebuilding landscape retaining walls? I have a wall that needs to be taken down and rebuilt (or graded) and I'm wondering what my options are in terms of putting up another wall or just grating the soil as a slope after the concrete wall is removed. This wall is right next to the driveway, where an old "shed/garage" used to be. I'm also not sure what the cost is to do this, I'm working on getting a few quotes, unless I can handle the demo myself. Any thoughts?

[Rick Baggenstoss]

@Justin I've acquired a similar retaining wall challenge.  They are very simple to build.  I think it's very difficult to fix, but I've not tried to fix .. always rebuild.

To build, you demo never standing in front of the wall.  Then dig to a footer level.  The footer should be WIDE.  Remove a lot of dirt so you won't put pressure back on the wall.  Backfill with good piping and drainage stone and a shallow layer of dirt on top.  

Depending on the $ of the neighborhood, you can go with cinder block, cross ties, landscape timbers, Home Depot wall system, etc.

The wall I have is straight up like yours.  I'm planning on terracing the new wall.  Instead of 5' wall.  It will be 3', then a garden bed, 2 ft wall.  Much less technical to build.  Adds more curb appeal than a shear wall.  

I'd rent or hire an excavator to clear things out, but building the wall is very simple.  Just laborious.

@Justin J. Best of luck.  What's the new wall going to look like?