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Back in the 1930's highways widened the pavement to 19ft. My semi was built in 1937/38, the property is below pavement level with a retaining wall of approx 2m to the foundation. The wall is approximately 8M long, generally in the order of 0.23m thick above ground level. Its thickness below ground level is not known. There is a brick counterfort built (at a later date) against the rear face of the retaining wall behind the centre-left pillar and alongside an earlier (and possibly original) approximately 0.23m square brick pier shown below. The footing to the retaining wall is approximately 0.1m thick concrete; the underside of which is approximately 0.8m below ground level at the rear of the wall and with a projection from the rear face of the wall of approximately 0.065m. Extracts of the reports conclusion from my consulting engineer says: We are of the opinion that the wall has rotated due to inadequate foundations – the toe at the rear of the wall being of insufficient projection, resulting in excessive pressure on the underlying ground under the constant pressure from the retained earth, and greatly exacerbated by periodic vehicle-related surcharge loading on the footway. Rotation and bowing of the wall has also caused the formation to the footway to drop and the consequent repairs to the surfacing have most likely compounded the issue. The effects of root action – in terms of mechanical damage and also very likely moisture variations in the predominantly clay subsoil due to water demand of the Linden/Lyme tree - are also considered to be a significant contributory factor to deterioration and movement of the brickwork. So... the council refuse point blank to have anything to do with the wall, despite it supporting the pavement as it was probably constructed to provide benefit to the landowner!!! My quandary is what to erect to stop the wall collapsing? Losing a metre of land to place gabions is not ideal, but may be the most cost effective solution. This is the proposal from the engineers, which suggests it may be beyond my skills to erect. Anyone with any thoughts? Retaining Wall Report.pdf Retaining Wall Report.pdf

Hi everyone, We've just refurbished our house with a builder who has done a great job on the house and interior. Unfortunately, he followed the wrong plans for a deck and instead of building pillars for a suspended deck, he built a brick and block wall laid on a concrete foundation. It's about 1m up from the ground and encloses a 50m2 area. The builder has filled it with rubble from the house. We've had a delay because of COVID and have not put the decking on top as yet, but are planning that now. However, the deck wall has got damp as you can see in the picture. The builder suggested putting pipes through the wall to let it drain, but don't think it should be getting damp to start with. Any thoughts about this? Thanks, Matthew

I need to make some weep holes in this retaining wall. I’m not a bricklayer or anything but have the basic tools. I was going to chisel out one brick and replace it with a half brick every few feet but then realised the wall is 2 bricks thick. The second image is how it is on the neighbors wall adjoining. Any suggestions appreciated. Cheers