Had a brick wall buckle on me last Wednesday during a retaining wall job near Huntsville

I was building a 4 foot tall retaining wall for a backyard in Huntsville. Everything looked fine until I got about halfway through the third course. I noticed a few bricks were starting to lean outward. At first I thought it was my level being off, so I double checked. Nope, the whole wall was starting to bow. Turns out I forgot to put in the drainage gravel behind the first two courses. That water pressure was already building up and pushing the wall out. I had to tear down about 40 bricks and redo that section with proper drainage behind it. Added an extra two hours to the job and I felt pretty stupid about it. Has anyone else dealt with a wall starting to give way because of drainage issues before the mortar even sets?

3 comments

3 Comments

simonp767d ago

Hold up though, I gotta say something about the drainage gravel. You don't actually need it behind the first two courses, only behind the wall itself from the bottom up. The gravel should go behind the entire wall height, starting from the base trench all the way to the top. If you only put it behind the upper courses, that lower part still has no way for water to escape and the pressure still builds up from the bottom. The real trick is making sure you have a perforated pipe at the base of the gravel that drains out through the wall face every few feet. Did you put weep holes through the wall anywhere?

betty_kelly97d ago

See this all the time in other projects too. People focus on the part they can see and forget about what's underneath. Like painting a fence but skipping the posts in the ground because they're hidden. Water and pressure don't care about what looks good, they follow the same physics from bottom to top. Kinda like how people patch a roof leak without checking if the water already rotted the rafters underneath.

karenh566d ago

Oh man, that drainage gravel mistake is a classic "I know better but somehow forgot anyway" moment. I once spent three hours building a nice little garden wall and had to knock the whole thing down because I got cocky and skipped the gravel too. Water pressure does not care about your schedule or your pride, it will push your bricks right over like they're toys. The worst part is standing there looking at your mess knowing you did it to yourself. At least you caught it before the mortar fully set, my wall held together just long enough for me to feel real attached before it gave out. Learning the hard way is annoying but you definitely wont forget the gravel next time.