Retaining walls

SVreX wrote: He lives in ATL, so freeze is not a real issue. 12"-18" is more than adequate.

:thumbsup:

What I dislike the most is that neither of you said anything about drainage, which is probably the most important part. The walls should include good sized drains (maybe 3" PVC) at the bottom to allow water to escape that builds up behind them. These drains are called weepholes.

I covered all that in one of my earlier posts, and pretty much the same way you described.

On the subject of the key, I was using that in addition to the rebar turning up out of the footing. You'll probably need both.

I've seen a lot of messed up retaining walls. I mean, they've only been making them for five or six thousand years, so what have we learned? As expensive as they are to make the first time, they are even more expensive the second time. I think that some adult supervision would be money well spent. A couple hundred to an civil engineer would likely save you thousands down the road. At very least, go to the library and look in Architectual Graphic Standards, which is The Book in this field.

Key + rebar- almost impossible (the rebar will be in the way of putting down the 2x4). Also, the concrete would have to be awfully wet to successfully push a 2x4 into it, and it then wouldn't hold it's form.

Hess wins! There is absolutely no reason that an engineer couldn't be consulted for a simple job like this for a very nominal fee.