RETAINING WALLS (Part 17) Mike Haduck

well a year ago I came and worked a couple days with my friend Jack braviak whose son built this wall a little different way of doing things I'm going to show you how we did it well today they're going to put one of these Versa lock walls in here and uh that's it down there so we're gonna see what we're gonna do here now here's what I did just to get a feel for thing put a block here and a line going all the way up to here now we need eight inches in between so I need eight inches you gotta look at your line and make sure you got eight inches here I got seven and a half so that has to be higher here I got seven and a half now I'm hearing back to eight you gotta measure all the way down don't do that you're gonna have a hump in the wall so that's the first thing you do another thing I'm doing is I'm going off the curb down here this sidewalk here is wider than that sidewalk down there so we're best off goal with this line and that's where we're going to start number three this is the foundation for the old wall right here that's been in there for a hundred and some years this has been here about 25 years so we're gonna go right on top of this concrete there's nothing better than that we're not going to rip this out and dig down because that's the best base you could have and number four we're gonna walk up and see what everybody else did with their walls and where they ended up right up the street just just a few houses here's one of those walls and you could see it's pushed let's go find out why it's pushed well look at that push right there way out look where it uh the rain pipe is goes right behind the wall that's what pushed it there's these old stone walls they've been here 80 90 years and right up here we got this one so that's pushed so here I got this going in see yes just like that level in the back there and uh I'm gonna use a twigging wiggin's a little thing to keep the line up so because the line the line bends after a while that's going to be our height and then using some stiff mud it's gonna go right in there right behind it right even with that line it's gonna do that going right on top of this old sidewalk this is it's cut right here we put the wire down that wire is going to hold that together like you won't believe there's no reason to rip all this out and go with the gravel it'll be five times the extra money and it ain't gonna do anything and they can't pick these up no more I'm just helping out getting them going today that's it so that's it that's good I see how easy this first course is going in very simple we got this whole thing in the sun's showing but you see that the cement underneath that some parts are thicker some parts are thicker and then when you get up here it is thinner that's why we had to have some big joints to get a straight line and over here we got our our doorway in basically so since we got everything done now always how he's doing now is putting in the the blocks all right he's just gonna put it in put these pins in put the pins in [Music] then the pins interlock into here and that's it then there's a net that goes over the third course that's going to go in we're back and Jack got all the things ready and now we're gonna get ready to put the caps on and we're gonna go over here and saw these blocks to fit now we gotta cut the blocks that fit in here so I got the block all measured out and I used my saw [Music] foreign [Music] okay got the piece filled in and now we got wire is going to go on the top course and if you want to know how to cut it you don't have your Cutters with you you do that good good for this all right Corners we got a rock face them look at that no if you're watching me I got this door wall and I'm cementing it and do I have anything against glue no matter of fact I went to take some uh some of these caps off to disintegrate it and I use and it was hard to get off with the glue does the glue stick yeah is it going to hold as good as the wire in my opinion no but again there's nothing wrong with that just the way they do things because these blocks even though they got pins and everything they loosen up and once the wall starts moving just a little bit it's like a glacier it's going to push it this wire is going to hold it together I've seen the whole Foundation one time the footer gone and this wire holding the whole Foundation up so I'm really confident with it I just striking up underneath it flattening it all out so this is a picture of them delivering the gravel for behind the wall with the concrete truck they just got up there and they delivered it okay you're gonna put a new school retaining wall here and it's gonna be down below that uh pipe we get behind here this is Solid Rock is this all rock and as they dig down we're going to be putting that that thing on rock this is all rock so we're not worried too much about it sinking this way and depending on what they put we're not too much worried about it going this way because that's all Solid Rock behind there but we gotta go down below this grade here see where they came up with the thing so we start our wall we gotta go below that so I got the transit out my old school Transit and went from that point there to this point here we're going to lay the gravel flat hey what no more that's points upside down oh yeah I could just well I'm a little low here anyway are you yeah okay okay there you go right here see the orange thing oh you've used that yeah so all right go ahead Jack put it in almost a little low okay foreign mix it up all right throw it in a big shovelful big show foreign okay let's go here okay got the whole shovel there he'll move it out that's cool foreign so I got that whole wall in on top of the wire now so that's solid [Music] so I'm going to talk about that job a little bit I was helping Jack braviak and his son it was his son's job to put that wall in and that's what they wanted they wanted those Versa lock type of blocks to be put in no I'm not a fan of retaining walls but the city wanted them and I can't pick those blocks up anymore Jack was picking them up I just mostly go down to film these jobs and help out for a while but there's three types of retaining walls in Pennsylvania because of the frost or the type of walls that fell down retaining walls that are falling down or retaining walls that are going to fall down now when they ripped them old stone walls out what happened was in the old days they would get that rock of their dynamiting around the mines or they're dynamiting the roads up or something they take that rock and they build the walls with it problem was they used line and you're using a lime and a retaining wall back in the day that's what they mostly use it just kind of wears away and falls apart lime is mostly good for like Cathedrals or brick work or something that's not going to get wet or something but real fine joints like this but now they make these kind of Versa lock blocks the problem with them is after 35 years they start falling apart now here's the danger of these walls see how they all fall apart after a while this all falls apart so when you're building these walls you got to be wary of that stuff that they don't last forever walls are not strong going sideways they're only strong up and down when they got something on top of them if there's nothing on top of them the water Gets behind them and it freezes it's going to push them so it's only a matter of time I put that right on top of the old sidewalk if an old Foundation is good Why move it it's it's solid it's been there 100 years 80 years why would you want to rip that all up and put gravel underneath it so that's that and I always put that Dural wall in now let me show you a couple examples where they don't use the Dural wall and then they uh they start to dissipate here's another example on how the bottom of the wall caves in so the reason I use wires I don't want that bottom moving once that Bottom Stone or that bottom block starts moving the whole wall is going to eventually go you could also use rebar and if you wanted to do that lay it on top of the rebar sometimes that even works better we filled the back with uh they came with the concrete truck and they filled it back with gravel instead of concrete they just filled it with gravel those uh blocks that they're using when you get the blocks you've seen how they fell apart in another video that's because sometimes they come from the Deep South they get shipped up there and they don't make them to last Pennsylvania Winters so make sure that the manufacturer is in a local area where it knows that depth blocks are going to put up with Pennsylvania weather or you can put a sealer on them on the top because once that water gets in there starts freezing it's going to bust all apart I also got a video out called retaining walls yes or no now as far as I'm concerned about 85 percent and more retaining walls you don't really need them and here the city wanted it that way I don't even think they had the right to do that but from my perspective you didn't even need a retaining wall there you just sloped it all the way down anyway but that's a matter of opinion so that's it I think the video speaks for itself if you don't know it I moved to Florida summer all the time down here uh my name is Mike haddock thanks for watching and I'll see you next video [Music]

Channel: Mike Haduck Masonry

Views: 17,038

Keywords: Jack Bravyak, chris Bravyak, mike haduck, versa lok blocks, versa lok retaining walls, retaining wall, block retaining wall

Id: AQDQ5rF1hyQ

Length: 18min 47sec (1127 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 01 2023