A retaining wall that has started to lean, belly out between its ends, or creep at the base is usually being pushed by water it was never drained for, by fill that was placed wetter or heavier than assumed, or by a load added above it after construction. Ground Force Engineering inspects the wall, surveys its face for batter and bulge, and traces the movement to its source.
Timber walls rot at the deadmen, block walls lose their geogrid connection or were built without it, and concrete walls crack at the stem when the footing rotates. Some walls can be held with helical tieback anchors and a waler; others need only proper drainage and regrading; the worst are taken down in sections and rebuilt. HOAs, property managers and homeowners receive a report with options and a recommendation.
Scope of services
- Condition survey: lean, bulge, cracking, rotation and displacement at the joints
- Check of the wall as built against the current retained height and surcharge
- Global stability review where the wall sits on a slope or above a lower wall
- Drainage investigation, including clogged weeps, missing stone and roof runoff
- Helical tieback anchor design with walers and bearing plates for walls held in place
- Sectional rebuild details and sequence, so the wall is replaced one length at a time
- Monitoring points and a re-survey interval when the movement is slow
How we approach it
The existing wall is measured and, where possible, its construction is confirmed by probing behind the face or reading the original drawings. We rebuild the design pressure from what is there now, not what the original designer assumed, and set it against the capacity of the section, the footing and the anchors. The report states whether the wall is stable, repairable in place, or due for replacement, and the drawings follow from that finding.