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Strategic Planting Near Retaining Walls

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How to Build a Retaining Wall and 6 Reasons they Fail

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When planting trees, bushes, or shrubs near a retaining wall, follow a crucial rule of thumb to prevent future damage: plant them at a distance of at least twice the height of the retaining wall. For example, if the wall is 5 feet tall, plant major vegetation at least 10 feet away. Planting too close allows the growing roots to exert 'surcharge' pressure on the wall as they expand and grow downwards. This undue stress can push the wall outwards and compromise its structural integrity.

Goal: Avoid root-induced stress and damage to retaining walls

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rainstorms. Here's another great rule of thumb that you can use on almost any retaining wall. You want to plant a major tree, bush, or shrub on it, like the pine tree you see behind me. Take the height of the retaining wall. Now, in this case, it's just a 5-footer, but multiply it by two. So, that means take the height of the wall, 5 ft, * 2. That means you go 10 ft behind that retaining wall before you would plant this tree. If you plant it too close to the wall, what happens is as the tree grows up, it creates undue stress and that's called a sir charge onto the retaining wall itself. So, as the trees growing up, the roots are growing down, it's going to push that wall out. But if you use that rule of thumb, that should put you safely outside of the searchcharge zone of most structural retaining walls.

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