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Stesso

Install Retaining Wall Base Course with "Step Up" Method

12:28
15:20
55.3K views

At 12:28 in

Fighting Rain out on the job

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What happens here

Prepare the base course for the new retaining wall, adjusting for the natural slope of the ground. Instead of burying additional blocks to maintain a consistent level, use a "step up" method where the base course steps up with the elevation changes. This ensures that the base remains consistently supported at the appropriate depth relative to the rising ground level, preventing unnecessary burial of blocks and maintaining structural integrity. Use a plate compactor to compact the base material (gravel) beneath the blocks to create a stable foundation.

Goal: Lay a stable and correctly leveled base course for the new retaining wall, adapting to ground elevation changes.

Tools and materials

  • Gravel — Used as the base material for compaction beneath the blocks
  • Level — Ensuring each course of blocks is perfectly level
  • Plate Compactor Honda — Compacting the gravel base to create a solid foundation
  • Retaining Wall Blocks Versa-Lok — Creating the base course of the retaining wall

What they say

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When you guys are saying step it up, what are you talking about? This is our base course. And this is level. So, this stays level, but the ground is going up. So instead of burying all this extra block to keep this going, we step it up a level. So the rock's going to come up to this level now. And this is going to be our base block going forward. We're going to take one step up. We don't need to have two block underneath the ground or three block underneath the ground. Yeah. We'd be like three blocks buried by the time we got up to the corner. And then you got all that block that's just buried. All right. Well, I'm a layman, but you're adjusting for the curve here, right? Is that why you're doing that? It's not a curve or the pitch. Gotcha. If we kept going level with this, it would get deeper and deeper the further we land. In my mind, when I said curve, it was curving up from where you were. So, did this client need landscaping done? Cuz was collapsed. The wall was blown out and this junk right here was gone.

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