After months of lurking and learning I've finally got to the point of needing to pose a question. (which in itself is a measure of how much excellent material there is on this site and forum!!)
I've taken on a monster DIY project to:
- level the top quarter of my garden (have spent odd evenings over the last few months removing 10 tonnes of earth by hand and barrowing it round to the front of the house for disposal (limited access and too tight to hire machinery/pay somebody . Now facing the task of breaking and removing 10m2 of cement sub-base from the old paving. Keeps me busy...
- pour a 5m square concrete base to plonk an above ground wooden swimming pool on
- put a 3x2m summer house in
- pave the 20+ m2 between the summer house and the pool
An unplanned aspect of this has been the realisation that one of the gardens that ajoins ours to the rear is actually 50cm higher and that the rather poorly looking fence there has been retaining some of the earth. I'm therefore planning on removing the fence and building a retaining wall - roughly 1.2m x 11m. There is actually a poured concrete earth retainer 20cm into the neighbours garden at the highest point which is holding back most of the earth so the new wall won't be holding a lot weight but I was planning on playing safe and build it from 7n 440x215x215 dense, hollow blocks tied in with vertical rebar on a 600mm(w)x275mm(d) footing.
My question is - given the length of the wall (and the fact that only half of it will be retaining earth) I'm assuming I should build in one or two movement joints? If so, what do I put into the gap? I've found the Brickfill product which is only 100mm wide - is there something similar for blockwork or would I just use two pieces of this with a gap in between?
presumably you are going to face the wall with some sort of brickwork?
The last time i put an an expansion joint in, i used fibre board, then used a silicone sealant on that to mask it.
its been there for 6 years now, no problems at all.
Dan the Crusher Man
01442 212315 www.crusherhire.co.uk
"a satisfied customer? we should have them stuffed!"
No - I was going to render it. With 13m2 to cover I might even get pretty handy at it by the end
Fibreboard as in Flexcell or something like that? Fair enough - I found a booklet on the web warning against using that as it doesn't compress easily and might cause problems. Good to hear that you've seen it work.
BTW - I've got a pile of bricks and stones piled up about 1m3 so will definitely be getting in touch in a couple of months to discuss hiring a crusher. Really don't want to have to move all of that round the front and several tonnes of hardcore back again...
My fun and games continue. Removed another tonne last night and took a closer look at the other garden. What I thought was a prepoured retaining wall is actually a breached block retaining wall with soil spewing through it and blocks pointing in all directions
Will definitely need to take a closer look to see why it failed and probably remove most of it for fear it will come down into my new wall. Joy.
I think you're going way overboard on the spec if the wall is only retaining max 50 cm of soil then a standard block on flat wall with 4 or 5 hidden pillars Will be more than up to the job. Also for that length it's debatable whether an expansion joint is needed. If it's tied to another wall or the house use one there and if you want to put another in then 1 in the middle Will do. If the neighbour has piled the soil against the fence without a retainer then you should ask him to sort it because Thats bad form or at the least he should contribute some cash towards it.
As I refined my plans I found that it will be actually be retaining 1m of earth for about 4m of the length. (the rest won't retain anything). The total length will 11m->a corner->6m and the wall will be 1.7m high so my plan was to put the joint 4m away from the corner on the long leg.
Does it sound like I'll get away without a joint given that length?
. Now facing the task of breaking and removing 10m2 of cement sub-base from the old paving. Keeps me busy...
