Retaining wall drainage.

[flanagaj]

I've put in a oak sleeper retaining wall.  The sleepers are installed so that they'll slightly below the gravel path.  The will allow me to put hardcore / gravel underneath them so they are not sitting in soil.  I keep hearing that I should install a french drain behind the sleeper, but as you can see from the images below, that is nigh on impossible due to the boundary and hedging.  If I was to excavate a trench between the steels and fill that with rubble, would that suffice?

 

I was also contemplating putting a 6mm steel plate behind the sleepers so I could bolt (stainless) each sleeper to it to help keep them inline and reduce the possibility of bowing.  I wasn't sure whether the centre plate should also be concreted into the ground?

 

The was is not very high, but just don't want it looking a mess.

 

In hindsight, I wish I'd just ripped the neighbors 'hedge' out and had a block wall installed, especially given it's down the back of the house and future access with an excavator will be nigh on impossible.

 

 

[Conor]

Anything you put there will be full of roots in a few years anyway. On the plus side, with the hawthorn the ground will be quite dry. Id just backfill with 12mm clean stone.

[Russell griffiths]

Go and see the neighbours 

rip the hedge out and re plant a new one, by the time the house is built it will be 4 feet high and nice and lush. 

[saveasteading]

It's not going to fall over. Water will run through the gaps so you might want to put a drain along the base, as long as it has somewhere to run to.

 

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