Install Drainage System and Backfill

if you look closely you'll see where we're building the brand new retaining wall is just a few feet in front of the old retaining wall but that space between the two is filled up with three-quarter clear drainage aggregate and that's reinforced with geobread now burying a retaining wall like this behind an existing retaining wall is actually an okay scenario when done under the right circumstances one of those circumstances is if removing the old retaining wall jeopardizes a structure then look at the option of building a new wall in front of the old wall and tying them now you can actually use this same process on timber retaining walls with caution the timber wall will break down when it's buried but the encapsulation process or burying it behind another retaining wall dramatically slows down how fast that wall will break down and so you have to wait is the potential for that wall to slowly decay behind the existing wall worse than the process of entirely removing it and jeopardizing a structure that's something that you have to weigh in an individual case-by-case basis