Expert Critique of Retaining Wall Construction

have probably going to be undermining this one packing it back up too I'm just going I'm going to talk to Cole about the wall Heights you know that's why I was trying to hook the laser up again but retaining walls are structures that need to be engineered and have to be built to a very strict standard otherwise they are set up to fail and what you're looking at with this one is a complete failure right from the moment they finished building that retaining wall let me explain they physically connected that flag pull to that retaining wall why I don't know but the big no no that I do know is you can never and I mean never physically connect a retaining wall to any other structure you can't butt a retaining wall up to a house a building or a structure and tie it in because a retaining wall is completely different than a CMU wall a concrete masonry unit wall a retaining wall is designed to float a concrete masonry wall is designed to not move it has mortar it's adhered together it's stuck together like glue and if that wall Floats or moves that mortar cracks and the wall goes into a state of failure that's why a CMU wall needs a deeper Frost foating if there's Frost heave but a retaining wall on the other hand is designed to allow the blocks to slightly move and undulate with the frost heave and the changing of the seasons and to go right back into shape if they get out of shape but to do that successfully means that the retaining wall itself has to be built properly in the first place that means the right geogrid the right base material the right drainage aggregate the right structural fill behind it all of these things have to work in unison to create a retaining wall that can withstand the pressure of moving and that means that that that retaining wall although it's allowed to move and groove and to float and to do whatever it wants to do can't be tied to something else because now you've taken all the principles of the engineering of that retaining wall and you've made them null and void and I've seen this time and time and time again if you are a retaining wall contractor and you want to start building retaining walls over 4 feet tall for your own sake please and thank you take some in engineering courses understand some basic geoengineering so that as you as you're building the wall up you understand soil Dynamics how to compensate for clay soil versus sand soil gravel how to understand what a surcharge on the back of a retaining wall is how to build a…