HOW TO BUILD A RETAINING WALL

why hello there brent here with the bring your own tools on today's episode we are building a wood retaining wall if you want to learn how to do it keep on watching let's get started [Music] and yes we are back at the deck project that i recently built on byot but now we're going to take care of all this old retaining wall as you can see we have a lot of area to work with and we're going to completely renovate this entire space by removing the old retaining wall and installing a brand new new one while also adding a tremendous amount of useful space for this bottom patio now the real nice thing is that our laser level is set up at the very bottom of our beam over here which means that that four foot measurement is perfect for this retain wall because we need this retaining wall to be under four feet which it definitely will be after we took that measurement now we have to excavate this whole area because we want this area to be just like this eventually [Music] now this is a werner backhoe or basic little mini excavator that really does an amazing job at removing a lot of this old miscellaneous soil material very quickly and very easily with just one person myself included so keep that in mind when you have this type of product because you can rent these for a day for a couple hundred bucks and you're good to go let's do it now the specific call-out for this piece of equipment is called a stand-on narrow track loader and the great thing about it not only does it allow you to remove all the excess soil extremely quickly and efficiently but it also does an amazing job at removing all of these old timbers along the way which some are extremely heavy and awkward to carry now in your area if you're not able to rent one of these pieces of equipment you can obviously do all this work by hand but it will obviously take quite a bit more time and energy to do so hopefully you have some good friends along the way that can help you with that if you do have to do it by hand but just know this piece of equipment was extremely handy to have especially with the fact that i'm performing the majority of this work by myself and this project would have taken weeks to do versus a single week if i didn't have it after i have all the timbers a large rock and excess soil completely removed from the space i can then start my trenching and the trench itself actually has to be one foot deep because we have to account for approximately four to six inches of crushed rock and then one of our six by six timbers on top of that that has to be below grade which we'll get to in further detail shortly i would say that's pretty doggone perfect and the whole layout here is the fact that we need to have our laser level show five feet at the very bottom of this base because we need another foot of space below grade four compacted rock as well as one of our six by six posts we need to have at least one six by six underneath our actual ground level surface and then build our four foot wall on top of that we have five feet here we have four feet at the bottom of this beam which means we are absolutely perfect now let's start compacting and then let's get to rock before i compact anything whether it's dirt or rock i highly suggest wetting the surface first because that will always ease your ability to compact as well as reduce the amount of dust that's in the air which can be significant if it's dry now you can use a hand tamper for compaction but i always highly suggest getting a motorized compactor like this this is a narrow compactor because it does an extremely amazing job at compacting soil very well and efficiently which is extremely important with a project like this because you don't want any of the soil or rock to subside over time because you didn't compact it properly in the end but now that we have our dirt fully compacted it's time for rock and we got two different types of rock the first rock is going to be our sub base which is a 5 8 crushed minus this is a perfect product for a sub base because it has fine particles in it which means that it compacts very nicely and easily i smooth it out as evenly as possible with a rake double check it with my laser level which does measure four feet six inches and then wet it down prior to compacting i go over each section multiple times to receive complete compaction and once we have it to the point where i like it you can start applying your timbers straight to that surface just know that it doesn't have to be perfectly level at this point because when we do position the timbers on top we can maneuver the timbers in place to get true level and as for the timbers we are using a six by six by eight foot long landscape timber which is specifically designed for retaining walls now these are even better than your standard pressure treated timbers because they are designed for ground contact even though as you can see we will be avoiding contact with soil at all cost to get proper alignment there's a number of ways we could go about it but an easy quick way that i did it was just to make sure these beams were parallel with the deck which i know is also square against the house once i like the position and they're level i then mark a line at six inches and drill a half inch hole all the way through the timber itself because guess what it's time to stake these bad boys into place we are taking three foot long rebar and actually staking them through the timber into the ground below this does take some strength and energy to do but it's extremely important especially on this lower run in order to guarantee that this lower run is not going to be moving on us over time i stake each end of the timber as well as the dead center of the timbers especially on the high side of this retaining wall once i have the first board in place we can proceed with the next and the next and the next just know that this will take some time and energy to do and this is also a good time to remind you to call 811 before you dig we did we knew that there was no lines or sewage lines that happened to be randomly placed in our backyard and therefore we were able to dig as well as spike these rebars into position without having to worry about anything underneath the layout of our retaining wall is a bit unique because we have a couple 90 degrees that we have to account for this first one is just gonna be attaching one eight footer to another eight footer and i do use one of our timber fasteners that i'll be getting into further detail shortly i do this on the back side before i stake our rebar in place because i want to ensure that the transition at this specific spot is not going to change on me after i start hammering it in place with any good retaining wall it's inevitably going to fit your specific space and for our space we have a couple different jogs into our retaining wall it's not a fun nice and easy straight retaining wall which would have been easier but in our case we have a couple different jogs because we have a unique fence line with a height variance that differs all the way down the fence line just know that our base timber was installed the same exact way all the way down but hopefully you didn't have this many jogs on your project as for cutting these timbers down to the correct size of course there's a number of ways to do that but my personal preference is to actually use a reciprocating saw with a long enough blade length to cut this in one fluid cut now that's important because i don't want to have to try and flip this thing over and cut it which is why i'm not using my chop saw as you can see in the truck right there because not even my chop saw can cut these boards in one fluid cut however keep in mind that once you do cut this material you do need to apply a wood preservative to the ends you cut because the solution that is actually penetrating these timbers don't always soak into the entire timber itself therefore it becomes a weak point especially if it's close to the ground so make sure that you always treat the ends of the timber that you do cut once i like the positioning i do apply a fastener to the front side in order to keep the smaller timbers in place as i'm hammering the rebar stakes i make a mark where my next 90 is going to be placed and to make sure the end of this beam is parallel with the front of the beam i do grab a string line run it down the side of the one that i already installed and that way as long as the spacing is exactly the same that means this beam is perfectly straight now at this point if you're asking yourself brent don't you hit rocks yes yes you do and it's not fun when you hit one but you do hit them and eventually the rebar does go down so i don't know what happens to those rocks but they did go down eventually just note that this is not an easy process but very vital to a properly supported retaining wall got it okay we're to a very important step and i know it doesn't look like much maybe a little chaos but we got all this runs completely taken care of and they're all perfectly level as you can see exactly what we want this is basically the different type of jog that we're going to do for this entire wall but this is the most important because this is going to be our base that needs to be perfectly level so the entire wall is level as well as the fact that we had to stake in a lot of rebar which was exhausting to say the least but we're there now we can build on top of it and get some drainage taken care of on this side and speaking of drainage one of the most important things to do is to have a proper barrier this is specifically a woven ground cover barrier which is designed for multiple landscape uses but is also a perfect product to use when trying to have a barrier between the soil and your drainage rock while also allowing moisture to be able to get through easily and quickly i cut each section so we have excess height above the grade and also staple it in place to our base timber i overlap each end approximately six inches and do this throughout the entire run of a retaining wall this type of product is extremely important to have to extend the longevity of your retaining wall and as for the front i do also apply a membrane material to the very bottom timber now you don't have to do this but because i want to reduce the amount of moisture and soil contact with the bottom timber which is going to be more prone to moisture i do apply that membrane as well as installing some more crushed rock right in front of it therefore having a double whammy of waterproofing protection whether you do backfill this area with rock or dirt i would also highly suggest compacting this area as well because that will just solidify that bottom beam in order to have as much support as possible before you install the remainder of your timbers also keep in mind that even if you have an overlap within your barrier i would highly suggest duct taping it in place therefore you can be rest assured that no soil will be coming in contact with your drainage rock over time and speaking of drainage rock let's get to that for this project we are using inch and a half rounded drain rock which is specifically designed for drainage purposes that's why it's absolutely perfect for the back side of a retaining wall because you can easily have all that moisture drain through this rock into our pipe that we'll be placing at the very bottom and as for our drainage piping this is a perforated four inch pipe that actually has a sleeve over the entire thing therefore any of the sediment that is left behind won't actually clog up our pipe and therefore our pipe can drain properly for years and years just try and make sure that the pipe is angled slightly so it's angled away from your house and now it's finally time to get to our remaining timbers for the first row that we just installed we started with an eight foot long span therefore the second row is going to be a four foot long span because we want them to be staggered across which will give more stability to the wall itself i align the front lip of the timber with the timber below it and once i'd like the positioning i install it with the fasteners that we used previously and the fasteners that we're using for this project are from fasten master they're called out as 10 inch timber lock screws which are specifically designed for timber retaining walls because it actually removes the need to use rebar throughout the wall itself not the ground but throughout the wall we don't have to use rebar for installation purposes as for fastener spacing each beam gets one fastener on each end approximately three inches in then every other fastener should be placed every 16 or 24 inches one of the most important things to have especially with a retaining wall like this is to have proper support and that comes with the deadheads it might be an odd name but these deadheads are extremely important when it comes to making sure that our wall is not going to be tumbling over on top of us over time there's a lot of weight that this wall is going to be holding back whether it's the rock or the soil and to leverage that weight in our favor we're installing deadheads because that means the weight of the rock and the soil are pressing down on the dead heads and therefore helping our retaining wall to stay straight up now i'll be going into more detail about these deadheads throughout the video and by the end of the video if you don't quite understand why we're doing it please let me know in the comments below because this is a very important step to have a properly supported retaining wall so one quick sec before i install this whole section right here i pre-cut everything so i measured four feet from this corner over here which is right where this beam ends and everything is cross dimensional so if we have a stretch here i want to make sure this piece goes all the way to here so it connects downward to connect both pieces together much more secure and much more stable than if you did it the opposite way again same thing over here we have that section but you have this section over here much more stable now let's screw it in the only other keynote that i have when it comes to the fasteners is to make sure you have a strong enough drill for it to sync 10 inch long deep screws you're gonna have to have a nice sizeable impact driver which makes life a lot easier in the end if you do so keep that in mind before you actually take on this project because i did personally have to beef up my drill set for this project also keep in mind that you do want to drill into every single beam underneath whether it's a large beam small beam or deadhead once we work ourselves off of that ground level the system itself really does install very quickly and surprisingly straightforward for the most part just have to be creative sometimes especially when it comes to the deadheads this section i decided to connect these two because no matter what this is a proper way to have downward force in this specific corner and we can just proceed on to the next section as i noted earlier the fence line really does add a unique predicament to this project because it's angled on a hillside and therefore the earth that we have to hold back on one side is much higher than the other side but that just means that we have some quick work to do on the low side but the majority of our time spent is going to be on the high side when it comes to the end of our drain i just cut it at the correct length then install our cap right on top of the drain and then roll and tighten the sleeve right on top therefore we don't have to worry about any critters getting into our drain as well as it should drain properly right out of the back side of our retaining wall at this point because i had a helping hand this day we started filling some rock into the smaller locations so we could bury the pipe and backfill the retaining wall with our drainage rock it's another reason why it's nice to use a rounded drainage rock because you can also use it as a landscape accent there's a number of crushed drainage rock out there but it's not as eye appealing as the rounded drainage rock if it's used for a landscape purpose like this to finish off our deadheads we actually want to place a perpendicular beam on the backside of each deadhead and therefore that actually just provides even more strength and stability for our retaining wall just know that it might be a little tight if you're going in between two other deadheads as we fill up the lower end with drainage rock i proceeded to install more landscape timbers along the way our first row of dead heads was closer to one foot off the ground but our second row of deadheads is gonna be closer to three feet off the ground i grab my level at a certain point make a mark and that's because i want the bottom dead head to be in alignment with the upper deadhead just something that's more of an eye appeal for me personally and i know it's not something that most people would catch but it's a more professional look and feel and it will set our project apart from the rest i install the last few rows of timbers and after i get to my finish height of four feet i stop and look back and see man that retaining wall does look good it is looking gorgeous the full height is taken care of and as you can see one of the most important things is our deadheads now we just still have to connect a couple horizontal deadheads in the corners as well as over here but this wall is extremely strong very durable and i can't wait to get that rock into here just to take a little time and energy let's do it i hammer all the deadheads in place and fasten them with at least one timber fastener however on the tall long straight run i did something different i actually extended these dead heads out approximately 48 inches and then staked rebar within these dead heads that will ensure we have a lot more strength and stability because not only are you using the weight of the rock and the soil to your advantage but you're also able to stake these in place with three foot long rebar which gives you more of a lateral support as well however there are two ways of going about this one i just showed you the second method is that you actually take the perpendicular piece that we just installed in the last one and actually pre-stake those with the rebar then hammer it in place and fasten that one to the deadhead member i don't know which one's gonna provide more strength and stability but no matter what we're gonna have plenty of it there we go you guys we have the retain wall fully up we have all of our deadheads in we have quite a few we have some going inside so i'm going outside rebar is supporting them all of the good stuff now all we have to do is fill it with rock now that's gonna be a lot easier than what we just did so let's get to it oh and we did decide to keep our track loader specifically for this step because if we didn't it would be much more difficult to try and get all this rock up and over into a retaining wall it is a four foot tall retaining wall the key thing to keep in mind when filling the space is to make sure that you're not leaving any voids along the way specifically voids around our deadheads because we want to have proper support for our deadheads in order to have proper leverage and if we have big open space underneath our deadhead then it's not going to do its job properly you also want to try and backfill with soil behind our barrier if possible it's not going to always be possible because it's hard to fill those open voids with dirt when you have a lot of rock pressing against it but keep that in mind also keep in mind that this is a lot of material to put in the back of a retain wall we actually backfilled with seven yards of drainage rock and still ran out so we had to get another two yards i filled to the back of the retain wall till we got to approximately eight to six inches from the very top of the retain wall then i actually placed another layer of ground fabric right on top stapled in place at the very top of the retaining wall because i'm actually then going to backfill soil into the space we're filling soil because we're actually going to want to do more of a planter bed area in the space at a certain point and therefore we have plenty of drainage rock to be had just want to make sure that the top soil doesn't seep into our drainage rock which the barrier will prevent i smooth out our soil with a rake just try and make sure you're not puncturing our barrier while you're doing so once i backfill as needed i quickly maneuver all of this soil into the lower backyard maneuver and repurpose some of the large rocks we had dress it up a bit and guess what we are done [Music] this project was a lot of work time and energy spent but well worth it in the end because you have such a beautiful well-supported wall that really adds tremendous amount of value to your home because you just added so much more useful space as you can see here remember what it used to look like yeah that's rough but we have so much more space to utilize now the real question is what are we going to do with all this extra space that gives me plenty of ideas and that's what i call one beautiful sexy beast oh yeah

Channel: BYOT

Views: 1,140,127

Keywords: byotools, diy, do it yourself, how to, bring your own tools, tutorial, start to finish, byot, HOW TO BUILD A RETAINING WALL, diy retaining wall, retaining wall, timber retaining wall, timber wall, how to build a timber retaining wall, diy timber retaining wall, wooden retaining wall, landscape retaining wall, landscape wall, build a retaining wall, retaining wall construction

Id: NyZ9udzyyOg

Length: 23min 58sec (1438 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 21 2021