Earth Retention - questions...

becks92

I want to dig out our back garden to give us a patio. The way it is at the minute is that it is knee high and you step up into the garden.

I am thinking of hiring a mini digger to level it but am concerened about the surrounding land as it would be higher than the patio level. On one side we have a neighbours garden, to the back the rest of the garden which we want to retain with the same brick thats there now and to the left is our drive.

How do we go about retaining the earth left once we have dug out all we want. How do I also insure that next doors garden doesn't come crashing into ours?

Any help will be gratefully appreciated.

Bx

latecomer

Retaining walls

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retaining_wall

ormus

need more info really. what size garden?
what is the final difference in height going to be, between yours and the neighbours soil levels?
if its only 2 ft then a double brick wall, with piers should surfice. (if you want brick).

there are lots of alternatives to brick. concrete, steel, or railway sleepers?

27col

Brick or block retaining walls are not a lot of use unless they are properly built to a substantial standard. This can be quite expensive to do well. It would probably be easier and a lot cheaper to work out something using wood boards and some serious wooden posts let into the ground. Cracked retaining walls will always remind you of the fact that they were not done correctly first time.

iamcornholio

A 215mm thick (ie one brick thick) wall will be enough to retain ground which is knee high. The foundation is just as important so [typically] a minimum depth of 450mm deep with a 450mm wide by 225mm concrete strip foundation.

The important thing is choice of brick. The wall will be almost constantly damp, so you want a frost resistant brick, and you should consider a design which to keep the wall relatively dry from the soil behind, and so prevents the awful leeching through of salts to spoil the appearance

If the ground gets very wet, then include a method of drainage behind the wall