Cracks and Leak in Cinder Block Retaining Wall

[Bhotar3]

I inspected a home today with a slightly cracked, leaking cinder block retaining wall. Gutter runoff seeps into the soil and runs through the cracks in the wall.

The home was built in ‘67. There have certainly been some patches over time in the wall.
No aggregate buffer, french drain, or weep holes from what I can tell.

Any thoughts here? The wall appears structurally sound but I believe the leak should be addressed.

Is there a best practice repair here? I will recommend the gutters be rerouted elsewhere.

I appreciate any insight!

 

[jerseyshore]

I hate just trying to make a wall watertight like this without fixing the main issue. These crappy walls need to leak otherwise you'll have a bending failure from the built up pressure. Get the downspouts away and fix the grading first.

 

[LuK13]

These crappy walls need to leak otherwise you'll have a bending failure from the built up pressure.

Maybe I need new glasses, but it looks to me like the top of the wall is out a bit. All in all not bad for 50 years of dealing with lateral pressure from piss poor site drainage, but I don't know if I'm jumping on the clean bill of health bandwagon. Especially with the consequences of failure being damage to vehicles and loss of access to a portion of the driveway/garage. I'm more inclined to say something like "functioning at time of inspection, recommend planning to fund project to address in 5 to 10 year, reassess wall at regular intervals for additional movement". Would definitely take a day or two to make sure I like the time frames I settle on.

 

[bkal]

Just my curiosity ... I notice that the curved wall has all head (vertical) joints aligned. It that a common practice?