Timber retaining wall

[mehr27]

A friend of mine owns a house in Virginia. His property is 3-4 feet higher than his neighbors and separated with a 90-foot long cinder block retaining wall. The wall needs replacing and his neighbor won’t pay the additional costs for concrete pavers so they have decided on a pressure-treated timber retaining wall. He’s hired a landscaping company to design and build the wall.

Any problems going with a timber wall? Will this simply be old railroad ties and does this type of construction need tie-backs? How is this type of wall typically constructed?

 

[SlideRuleEra]

Here is one way

http://www.hyne.com.au/downloads/dih_downloads/timberTDS/09_retaining_walls.pdf

http://www.SlideRuleEra.net

 

[oldestguy]

I looked over the above link and there are other ways.

A number of my friends use RR ties. They take one of the ties every so often and secure it to the wall with big nails (12inch long spikes) set in with a countersink half way thruogh. This sits 90 degrees to the wall and forms a form of "reinforcement" against tipping over. They use the spikes to secure each level to the one below also, spaced about 2 to three feet along the wall. 12 Inch spikes are usually available at lumber yards here. You need a one inch diameter long drill to do the countersink. A long smaller diameter drill can be then run deeper to the level of the next tie below. Half of the spike is in each level. These long drills are sold by Enco and other machinery supply houses.

In this case, it would appear that using the "tie backs" in the next to top level would be suitable. I'd locate them between each tie in that level to be sure. Length of the tie back could be held to a half a tie length also if space is cramped.