Wooden retaining wall using this guide?

Mark M · 16 Mar 2016 at 12:08

When I say retaining wall Im talking about a 2 foot high wall supporting a very slight slope which will have a few plants and flowers in it, nothing major. Ive found this guide online and was wondering if anyone can see any glaringly obvious problems with it? I know it wont last forever being wood but if I can get 10-15 years out of it I'll be a happy man and the kids will be grown up and I will have more time (and money) to do a proper job of it.

lsg1r · 16 Mar 2016 at 14:07

Only things I can think of are maybe using pressure treated wood so it should last longer and you could also use a wood varnish/stain to help protect it from the elements/make it look nicer. The filled side should be pretty well protected with the 'rubber' insert between the mud and the wood so it's more about protecting the side being hit by the elements.
I'd also look at going deeper on some, if not all, of the vertical supports, I don't like the idea of just using the horizontal ones it's suggesting with the 'flat base' and limited front infill.

Mark M · 16 Mar 2016 at 21:19

Yeah I was going to look at using treated timber. There is a fence supplier local to here that I was going to get the wood from.

I had thought about burying a few posts in the ground for a bit more stability but as I mentioned in the first post it's not going to be retaining much at all really. Would you postcrete them in?

Mark M · 18 Mar 2016 at 12:49

Having priced this method up its working out more expensive than I first thought and I compared the cost to vertical railway sleepers. For a 25m wall its working out approx £1500 for railway sleepers and about £800 for the above wooden method. Obviously thats not factoring in any of my time either which could take a good few evenings and weekends to construct wheras with the sleepers I could hire a mini digger to dig a trench, put the sleepers in and backfill with postcrete then put some drainage in as previously planned.

Anything to consider with a small sleeper wall? I read that you can use metal strapping on the back to keep them pulled tight together so will look into that.