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Retaining Wall Blocks Suppliers, Builders, Installers … - November 24, 2016 by Mr HomeBuilder

Melbourne-made Concrete Sleepers and Supplies for Retaining Walls in Landscape, Gardening and Structural Engineering.

Icons Walls is a small, dedicated team of local guys offering concrete sleeper supplies for garden, structural and engineered retaining walls. With more than 30 years of designing and installing attractive, solid retaining walls, we can enhance the look and feel of your landscape paving and outdoor space. We are dedicated to top-quality workmanship at prices to suit a wide range of budgets.

Over our time in the business, we have assisted many Melbourne clients in creating beautiful landscapes using concrete retaining wall sleepers. As respected builders and installers, we believe concrete garden sleepers and retaining wall blocks provide many benefits over timber constructions, as they last for much longer and are impervious to water damage and termites.

Our structures can be used to create walls up to 4.6m high. Some walls require council approval; our Melbourne installers and builders can help by liaising with your local council and providing detailed plans and engineering specifications to get the go-ahead on civil applications.

Our builders manufacture our sleepers in Melbourne, using local expertise and labour. We love our city and are proud that our efforts improve the look and liveability of businesses and homes, as well as provide income for local tradespeople.

All of our supplies, products and concrete services are implemented by professional, experienced retaining wall installers, to ensure a secure, long lasting structure.

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Retaining wall – Wikipedia - November 24, 2016 by Mr HomeBuilder

Retaining walls are structures designed to restrain soil to a slope that it would not naturally keep to (typically a steep, near-vertical or vertical slope). They are used to bound soils between two different elevations often in areas of terrain possessing undesirable slopes or in areas where the landscape needs to be shaped severely and engineered for more specific purposes like hillside farming or roadway overpasses.

A retaining wall is a structure designed and constructed to resist the lateral pressure of soil when there is a desired change in ground elevation that exceeds the angle of repose of the soil.[1]

A basement wall is thus one kind of retaining wall. But the term usually refers to a cantilever retaining wall, which is a freestanding structure without lateral support at its top.[2] These are cantilevered from a footing and rise above the grade on one side to retain a higher level grade on the opposite side. The walls must resist the lateral pressures generated by loose soils or, in some cases, water pressures.[3]

Every retaining wall supports a wedge of soil. The wedge is defined as the soil which extends beyond the failure plane of the soil type present at the wall site, and can be calculated once the soil friction angle is known. As the setback of the wall increases, the size of the sliding wedge is reduced. This reduction lowers the pressure on the retaining wall. [4]

The most important consideration in proper design and installation of retaining walls is to recognize and counteract the tendency of the retained material to move downslope due to gravity. This creates lateral earth pressure behind the wall which depends on the angle of internal friction (phi) and the cohesive strength (c) of the retained material, as well as the direction and magnitude of movement the retaining structure undergoes.

Lateral earth pressures are zero at the top of the wall and in homogenous ground increase proportionally to a maximum value at the lowest depth. Earth pressures will push the wall forward or overturn it if not properly addressed. Also, any groundwater behind the wall that is not dissipated by a drainage system causes hydrostatic pressure on the wall. The total pressure or thrust may be assumed to act at one-third from the lowest depth for lengthwise stretches of uniform height. [5]

Unless the wall is designed to retain water, It is important to have proper drainage behind the wall in order to limit the pressure to the wall's design value. Drainage materials will reduce or eliminate the hydrostatic pressure and improve the stability of the material behind the wall. Drystone retaining walls are normally self-draining.

As an example, the International Building Code requires retaining walls to be designed to ensure stability against overturning, sliding, excessive foundation pressure and water uplift; and that they be designed for a safety factor of 1.5 against lateral sliding and overturning.[6]

Gravity walls depend on their mass (stone, concrete or other heavy material) to resist pressure from behind and may have a 'batter' setback to improve stability by leaning back toward the retained soil. For short landscaping walls, they are often made from mortarless stone or segmental concrete units (masonry units).[7] Dry-stacked gravity walls are somewhat flexible and do not require a rigid footing.

Earlier in the 20th century, taller retaining walls were often gravity walls made from large masses of concrete or stone. Today, taller retaining walls are increasingly built as composite gravity walls such as: geosynthetics such as geocell cellular confinement earth retention or with precast facing; gabions (stacked steel wire baskets filled with rocks); crib walls (cells built up log cabin style from precast concrete or timber and filled with granular material); or soil-nailed walls (soil reinforced in place with steel and concrete rods).[8]

Cantilevered retaining walls are made from an internal stem of steel-reinforced, cast-in-place concrete or mortared masonry (often in the shape of an inverted T). These walls cantilever loads (like a beam) to a large, structural footing, converting horizontal pressures from behind the wall to vertical pressures on the ground below. Sometimes cantilevered walls are buttressed on the front, or include a counterfort on the back, to improve their strength resisting high loads. Buttresses are short wing walls at right angles to the main trend of the wall. These walls require rigid concrete footings below seasonal frost depth. This type of wall uses much less material than a traditional gravity wall.

Sheet pile retaining walls are usually used in soft soils and tight spaces. Sheet pile walls are made out of steel, vinyl or wood planks which are driven into the ground. For a quick estimate the material is usually driven 1/3 above ground, 2/3 below ground, but this may be altered depending on the environment. Taller sheet pile walls will need a tie-back anchor, or "dead-man" placed in the soil a distance behind the face of the wall, that is tied to the wall, usually by a cable or a rod. Anchors are then placed behind the potential failure plane in the soil.

Bored pile retaining walls are built by assembling a sequence of bored piles, proceeded by excavating away the excess soil. Depending on the project, the bored pile retaining wall may include a series of earth anchors, reinforcing beams, soil improvement operations and shotcrete reinforcement layer. This construction technique tends to be employed in scenarios where sheet piling is a valid construction solution, but where the vibration or noise levels generated by a pile driver are not acceptable.

An anchored retaining wall can be constructed in any of the aforementioned styles but also includes additional strength using cables or other stays anchored in the rock or soil behind it. Usually driven into the material with boring, anchors are then expanded at the end of the cable, either by mechanical means or often by injecting pressurized concrete, which expands to form a bulb in the soil. Technically complex, this method is very useful where high loads are expected, or where the wall itself has to be slender and would otherwise be too weak.

Soil nailing is a technique in which soil slopes, excavations or retaining walls are reinforced by the insertion of relatively slender elements normally steel reinforcing bars. The bars are usually installed into a pre-drilled hole and then grouted into place or drilled and grouted simultaneously. They are usually installed untensioned at a slight downward inclination. A rigid or flexible facing (often sprayed concrete) or isolated soil nail heads may be used at the surface.

A number of systems exist that do not consist of just the wall, but reduce the earth pressure acting directly on the wall. These are usually used in combination with one of the other wall types, though some may only use it as facing, i.e., for visual purposes.

This type of soil strengthening, often also used without an outside wall, consists of wire mesh "boxes", which are filled with roughly cut stone or other material. The mesh cages reduce some internal movement and forces, and also reduce erosive forces. Gabion walls are free-draining retaining structures and as such are often built in locations where ground water is present. However, management and control of the ground water in and around all retaining walls is important.

Mechanically stabilized earth, also called MSE, is soil constructed with artificial reinforcing via layered horizontal mats (geosynthetics) fixed at their ends. These mats provide added internal shear resistance beyond that of simple gravity wall structures. Other options include steel straps, also layered. This type of soil strengthening usually needs outer facing walls (S.R.W.'s Segmental Retaining Walls) to affix the layers to and vice versa.[9]

The wall face is often of precast concrete units[7] that can tolerate some differential movement. The reinforced soil's mass, along with the facing, then acts as an improved gravity wall. The reinforced mass must be built large enough to retain the pressures from the soil behind it. Gravity walls usually must be a minimum of 50 to 60 percent as deep or thick as the height of the wall, and may have to be larger if there is a slope or surcharge on the wall.

Cellular confinement systems (geocells) are also used for steep earth stabilization in gravity and reinforced retaining walls with geogrids. Geocell retaining walls are structurally stable under self- weight and externally imposed loads, while the flexibility of the structure offers very high seismic resistance.[10] The outer fascia cells of the wall can be planted with vegetation to create a green wall.

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How to Build a Retaining Wall – Lowe’s - November 24, 2016 by Mr HomeBuilder

The blocks for this project have a locking flange which makes the installation easy. The interlocking blocks can be used to build walls up to 28 inches high. Follow the block manufacturer's instructions concerning wall height limits.

Plan your layout. Avoid having downspouts pointed at the retaining wall and, if it's against the house, keep soiland mulchwell below the siding.

Your retaining wall design will determine how you mark the area. To mark a freeform layout, use a rope or hose to outline the shape. Then use a shovel to mark the outline. For straight lines, mark the entire bed area with stakes, string and marking paint. Mark curved corners by tying a string to a stake that's equidistant to the edge creating a compass and spraying the curves with marking paint.

To determine how many blocks you'll need per row, divide the total length of the wall by the length of the block. To see how many rows you'll need, divide the ideal wall height by the height of the block account for the first row to be half-buried. See Planning for a Block Retaining Wall for more information on estimating project materials.

Before you buy materials or begin work, check local building codes and your homeowner's association regulations to see if there are any restrictions or requirements you need to follow. A permit may be mandatory in some areas.

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Presto Geosystems – Geocell Soil Stabilization & Porous … - November 14, 2016 by Mr HomeBuilder

Presto Geosystems is a leading manufacturer of geocells and high quality construction products, supporting the civil, industrial, stormwater and construction industries with solutions to the most demanding soil and water problems.

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The GEOWEB system is the world's original geocell cellular confinement system and recognized for dependable quality and innovation. Sustainable soil stabilization solutions in the following applications:

Manage scour and surface flows with the GeoRunner System.

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Explore how the Presto Geosystems products create the right solutions for you and your customers. Full Catalog

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Your trusted partner consistently providing quality, innovative, competitive and customer-focused soil stabilization and stormwater solutions.

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DeKalb County GA neighborhood page | AJC - November 14, 2016 by Mr HomeBuilder