Driven by gravity, this wedge pushes against the retaining wall, with the pressure concentrated at the base. Your wall won't be holding up an entire hillside, just the wedge of soil between itself and what is called the "failure plane"-the steepest slope that existing soil can naturally form before it collapses under its own weight. There's much to consider in designing and constructing a retaining wall, though, from aesthetics and material choice to managing water runoff and the weight of the retained soil.įundamentally, retaining walls are built to hold back soil, and the weight of that soil puts tremendous pressure on the wall. With retaining wall blocks, it's also easy to make a DIY project of it-perfect for homeowners that want to take their landscape into their own hands. Whether it's for aesthetic purposes or to make sloped land usable for garden beds and outdoor spaces, a retaining wall is a valuable landscaping tool when used properly. Retaining walls serve a different purpose than outdoor freestanding walls-they're not built to fence in an area or to mark property but to aid in landscaping, holding back soil to fight erosion and let you reshape slopes.
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