Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Oct 03, 2012 10:00 pm Hi Guys, Please excuse my ignorance, this could be a silly suggestion! We have a a timber retaining wall stretching the length of our house. However, even if dirt is back filled to the highest point, we will still have quite a severe slope from the house to the top of the wall. Hence, we were thinking of putting an extra retaining wall in to create a split level. My alternative suggestion is to dig a row of concrete planting boxes in hard against the wooden wall and back-fill up to about half way up the planting boxes. Are there any dangerous downsides to this? The wooden wall has steel posts so I think it could handle the small big of extra pressure that may be exerted. Thanks! Re: Retaining wall using concrete planter boxes 2Oct 04, 2012 5:40 am You could in effect increasing the load on the wall by a considerable amount. See this diagram ( http://www.anewhouse.com.au/?p=1585 ) Although the steel may not bend the wall is only held vertical by the ground around the base of the post. What could happen is that the wall may start to lean. As the increase in wall height will most likely increase the total height to over 0.9m (unless the existing wall was very small) you should be getting a council permit for the 'alteration'. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5179 Thanks for the insights, that makes perfect sense, and yeah, I will be leaning on the experience of the excavator operator entirely. 6 16122 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 6899 |