Select Appropriate Retaining Wall Blocks

rain cheap block that's the number five reason this is where a lot of contractors like to cut corners and buy the cheapest thing they possibly can now if you are a customer couple of the things you want to keep your your eyes and ears open for are block that are not Hollow and a lot of times a block will look solid but will actually be Hollow from the bottom side and this is where you go to those big box doors you'll see the blocks are Hollow you actually have to take the block flip it upside down and what you'll find a lot of times is there's a core underneath there that Hollow core is put there specifically to make the blocks lighter so they're easier to handle less material so they cost less but what happens with those hollow blocks from the bottom under is especially if you're in Minnesota you get a freeze thaw cycle and your water will actually sit under here and as the water freezes it expands when it thaws it contracts freeze Tha freeze Tha so you're you're retting almost constantly in a state of doing this and and in the beginning it should look just fine but after years of doing that your blocks will start to shift they'll start to get kitty wed Compass they'll start to get crooked and your wall will fail because the bottom block and the top block above it are not properly seated and properly connected so they're basically just slapped on top of each other and laying there a good block is a solid block this is where we use these versalock standard units it's solid and it's pinned so it has holes in it specifically lined up to allow you to drive a pin from one to the other my daddy always taught me that if you want to build something and you want it to last you're going to put a leg bolt in it you're going to put a screw in it or you're going to put a nail in it if you just slap two things together lick them and stick them and say that ain't going nowhere well it's probably going somewhere so make sure that you got a good block that has a good pinning system and that is the number one thing now it's not number one it's the number five thing to look for when you're getting your retaining walls built make sure you know what block you're getting and you choose that block and if you're a contractor your reputation rides on you getting a good block for me it's cheap insurance it does cost more but you can charge more for a Better Block if it's if you're if you're pinching pennies because of the block you use you're basically on a race to the bottom…