Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Oct 21, 2013 8:57 pm hi, I am about to replace a bush rock wall that has fallen apart I want to buid it out of besser blocks then finish it with sandstone cladding, thing im not sure about is the size of the footing I should pour. wall will be 900mm high 5.7m wide and 2 sides 6m in length that will drop down to 1 block high by the 6m mark any advice would be appreciated Re: footing besser block retaining wall 2Oct 22, 2013 1:04 pm Even though there is a retaining wall there to begin with - albeit falling down - your Local Coucil may be interested in how you plan to replace it given you are changing the materials of the wall. Some Council areas have a 600mm height limit without an engineering design, some are 900mm and some are 1mtr. I was in a similar situation - did a knock down rebuild - including a retaining wall. What I did though was after the builder had finished was go see the council with my builders site plan that denoted the old retaining wall before it was demolished and explained that I was going to replace it. My wall was origially brick and I replace it with brick. Result was that my Council were fine, (no additional DA required) as long as I did not exceed the height of the original wall as per the site plan which the Council had previously used for the house build DA approval. I built a 800mm high Tasman block gravity retaining wall which replaced a wall of the same height and length. Each wall is different, and care needs to be taken with the proximity of buildings and driveways in relation to the wall as this will impact on the engineering needed to ensure a safe wall is built. Here is a picture of the footings I did. <>600mm wide x 250mm deep with trench mesh. The toe at the leading edge is so the wall is easy to mow against and is not there to assist the blocks being held in position. The footing runs along a massive piece of rock so its not going anywhere. Correct drainage is also key to maximising the lifecycle of a retaining wall. I used 100mm socked Ag Pipe and plumbers gravel encased in an envelope of Geo-fabric. The wall has been in place for about 3 years now and to the naked eye, has not moved a mm. http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq311/EB_Photos_2009/RetainingWallFoundation007a.jpg http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq311/EB_Photos_2009/RetainingWallFoundation009a.jpg and here is a pic of the finished product. http://i459.photobucket.com/albums/qq311/EB_Photos_2009/RetainingWallComplete003a.jpg Hope this helps there is a standard besser block wall pdf somewhere online with footing sizes, also have a look at dincel. 1 2899 6 11144 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 17389 |