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The importance of soil

Thursday, July 16th, 2009

The soil on your site is a critical aspect to your retaining wall project. Among the ways your soils can affect your overall project cost are:

  • Geogrid Requirements
  • Increased Effort to Compact
  • Cost of Importing Additional Material and Removing Existing Soils

A wall built in clay will have an increased need for geogrid when compared to the same wall build on a sandy site. This is because clay will “push” on the wall more than sand. This geogrid will be used to create a mass of soil large enough to overcome these forces.

Clays and silts resist compacting due to the shape of each grain of soil. They to trap water more and make proper compaction more labor intensive. It is important to achieve proper compaction to reduce future settlement and to increase the stability of the reinforced soil mass. To achieve the required compaction, you may need to compact more frequently with smaller lifts of soil, or use specialized compaction equipment.

When your site does not meet the minimum requirements suggested on the Working with Soils page on the Allan Block website, it may be required to remove the existing soil from the site and use select fill for the area within the geogrid. You may also find it necessary to increase the width of your base to compensate for poor soils under the wall.

If you have questionable soils on your site, please visit our website at allanblock.com for suggestions and recommendations. It will also be important that you contact a local engineer for help designing your retaining wall.

Tom

Posted in AB FAQs, Commercial Retaining Walls, Landscape Retaining Walls | 1 Response »
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Dirt Makes a Difference When Building a Retaining Wall

Monday, February 9th, 2009
clay48

Soil types

Want to build a landscape retaining wall that looks good and will last a lifetime. There are some simple things you can do when building your project that will ensure your wall stands tall and straight and beautiful for years to come. One commonly overlooked factor is the soil you are building on and trying to retain. So it’s all in the dirt…

Look around your neighborhood…you will probably notice some of the existing walls are bulging, cracking, leaning or are simply uneven. This is because many of these walls aren’t built to handle the weight of the hillside they are supposed to be holding back.

Even a small retaining wall needs to contain heavy loads. Remarkably, soil weighs a lot and the type of soil you have can really change the way your wall is built. Soil types can range from clay to gravel to organic types. First you need to figure out the type of soil you have.

Check out the information on soil types that Allan Block has on their website, to see what type of soil you have. And then get building on the right kind of soil, and your wall can be the one in the neighborhood that stands straight and tall…the envy of the neighborhood!

-Danelle

Posted in Commercial Retaining Walls, Landscape Retaining Walls | No Responses »
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