Prt 1: Retaining wall blows out -fast Repair

there was a water line that flew out behind a portion of the wall so they had a terribie sand chunk for the wall out in order to replace the water main and here's what we here's what we got to work with so the city came in tore out our wall and then drove a skid loader through it which means we've got to put it back together we'll be using brand-new blocks to fill in the gap but we've got to prep the old blocks before that can happen the old blocks have to be cleaned and scraped before they can be reused these are versa locks standard units they are a solid block but also have a pin system that hold them together so the pin holes and the pin slides both have to be scraped clean Sam also has to make enough room behind the blocks for new backfill and drainage aggregate he hand compacts behind the wall to make sure that there's no unsettled material [Music] here's a good real-world example of how this geogrid works so this the waterline blue and the fall it's been sitting all winter you know for a few weeks in the spring here and not only the bank really went anywhere except for where they scooped it out we got about I was like four is feet of the geogrid going back behind the wall and it absolutely held his bank back this would have been all over the sidewalk everywhere if we didn't have that to you up here than there Alec shows up just in time with the new blocks we weigh 83 pounds each so a handle comes in nice to carry them they've got to connect the new wall into the existing geogrid that's already holding the bank in place this needs to be very precise and can be tricky as they lay the blocks down they've got to make sure no dirt or rocks get in between the grid the block below it and the block above if anything gets in between the blocks and the grid it can throw the entire wall off so sometimes a block goes in just to come back out again even the slightest things like a piece of dirt or even a fold in the grid can throw the block off sending the guys in reverse on a short wall like this those mistakes probably will blend in but if this was a taller wall they would stick out like a sore thumb as they lay the blocks in they occasionally check the level to make sure that everything is going the way they had planned each block gets leveled front to back side to side and then along with all of the blocks on each side of them he slides the block on purpose so what we're doing when we're scraping these things is during the pouring process with these the tops aren't even it's just the way it goes with these with these concrete blocks so you get ridges all along here and if you don't you know triangles off whatever they can make your wall all want you so yeah make sure to scrape those it's called slag and the fastest easiest way to remove it is simply by sliding one block on top of it getting the right drainage material behind the wall is a critical element but easy to get wrong a lot of people use pea rock thinking that it's drainage material but it's small in nature and rounded we always use 3/4 clear angular stone it locks in place as you're laying it down and resists movement a center repair can be tricky you have two ends of a retaining wall that are left in place so you've got to make the concrete blocks meet perfectly in the middle alex is going to find out that sometimes that doesn't always happen [Music] I can fit although it fits it doesn't sit quite level and Alex finds out why the entire wall is designed to allow water to weep evenly through it the key to that happening is making sure that that drainage aggregate that gets put in place the drainage zones gets light hand compaction only the rock gets put in place and compacted in small lifts so it's a process that repeats over and over again the wall will need new corner caps which present their own unique challenge so the top caps wing comes rough one-sided so what the corner I got a split this off so that this has a rough edge but before that can happen all of the glue from the block below has to be hand straight dog an angle grinder would come up so hisle's and pics are you he starts by marking where he's going to split the cap to keep the face rough he uses a chisel to make the break he scores along the top side and bottom they knock down any high ridges or inconsistencies but they've still got one roll of blot to staff before they can cap the entire wall to get these blocks to connect they have to line up the pin holes on the top with the pin slots on the bottom it's a very precise procedure Sam slides a block across the top course prepping it for the calf to come next on the next part of this video we finished capping the wall fill in all of the ruts in the yard finish the back filling and wrap up this entire project god bless and go get em you guys