Browse Forums Paving & Concreting 1 Oct 03, 2010 6:35 pm i am moving houses and the one i want is causing me some concern . it is a 2 story double brick house of 1960 vintage in exactly the configuration i want. however it is built in a slope and has had the slope cut back and a retaining wall put in across 3/4 of the front of the house. which sort of leaves a sunken area about 1.5 metres wide between the wall of the house and the retaining wall. this is all concreted in. to complicate matters an entry ramp runs over this to the main front door . i didnt check yet but it has metal sheets under it that appear to be formwork so i am guessing it is concrete. however it externally appears to be wood, that needs sorting out but it is not my main concern the wall holds back a largish lawn area that is newly planted that used to be concrete til landscaped after the retaining wall was renewed in the last year. the owner states they paid $20K for all of this . she also says there is drainage built into (there is a language issue here so not sure i have understood her) between the earth and the wall. but also says that some steel thing was left out i am probably describing this badly but bear with me please yesterday i checked the place ....after a fair bit of rain....and there was water (not puddles but soaking) on the floor of this concrete area in front of the house. there is a door there that leads to the botton floor of the house.!! the water appeared to be coming thro the wall even tho it appears to be solid with no weep holes. it seems to be made from grey concrete bricks. there appears to be no way it could have come from gaps in or around the ramp. at the end of this sort of sunken area there is no visible exit for water apart from a tiny tiny hole in the wall. it means it is like a potential little lake with 4 walls ....with part of one wall being a sliding glass door. the owner says this is all new, has engineer diagrams attached to the contract and it has never flooded. i tend to belive her but it is such a weird set up that i am concerned. the step down from the floor of the lower house to this sunken part is maybe a brick or so. i do believe other potential buyers have expressed concern also because the agent and the nice owner have mentioned it and are reassuring me. there is no way i can see to check if the drain from this sunken area actually does drain down the side of the house in some underground way. ETA>......well i guess it could be filled with water and see what drains off ?????? the newly laid turf and the whole front garden slope to the corner or the house. that corner of the sunken part was dry......which now i think about it is weird. the rain hadnt been torrential to test it out. there is no obvious drain to take run off at a surface level but maybe it is sub soil so my questions are *do grey concrete looking blocks weep? * given it is about 3 feet high ......should it have weep holes? *is a builders report the best way of checking or do i get an engineer? i have not signed a contract yet and wont be til i sell my own house, but they have agreed to wait for me. i intended to get a building report when i am more sure of my own house sale but if this place is not a goer then i might as well look elsewhere and i need to get moving on that it is the perfect house for what i want but i have had a badly drained a badly sloped house before with the drainage from hell. a house of the same vintage i know i have described it badly and really need photos but for assorted reasons i dont want to press to do that right now. any thoughts would be much appreciated if anyone has any info many thanks ditzy......who also has a drivway question but will do that later Re: retaining wall advice please 2Oct 07, 2010 7:25 am sounding like the issues I will have with the new house I'm building, I want ducted heating, so the back will be cut 800mm and refilled. Anyway. Grey masonary blocks are porous unless the special sealed ones are bought. even the sealed ones are for rain exposure only, not water pressure from a retaining wall. I have loam so I know about wet. This also means that mould will gow or salt when the water evaporates, paint it and it blisters. Need to use whitewash or cement render. Sometime speople put a water proof membrane on the wall before back filling, stops moisture, mould, etc, or build it as a double cavity. Although is says it has drainage, it depends how deep it, and what was used , eg pipe with slots, pipe with holes, rocks, etc. Water under pressure is a nasty thing. Also make sure it is reinforced (steel thingy), or the wall might buldge and crack, happened to a friend and his was only 900 high, the builder forgot the reo. A talking dog, don't worry what it's saying, it's amazing it can even speak. 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 3401 Hi All, I engaged a tradie to install concrete retaining wall 600-800mm high over 32 meters in Victoria. Sleepers are 200*75*2000 mm installed over 17 steel posts. I… 0 3725 Getting the permit for your wall because it's going to be pretty tall in some places isn't too hard, but it does mean you have to do a bit more work. If all these steps… 6 21770 |