Retaining Wall? Check!

[lorrior]

Ladies and gentlemen, I am pleased to announce that The Great Retaining Wall Project of 2008 has come to a successful completion! Victory is ours! After many unrelenting weekends of jackhammer slinging, concrete hauling, power digging, dirt hauling, and all-around character building, we completed practically all of the demolition and excavation for the project and turned the wall construction over to our contractor. They started working Wednesday before last and throughout the week we’d come home each day to find a little more progress made as if by magic. By Friday, it was done. Fin. We now have a straight, dependable, solid frickin’ wall staunchly maintaining the distance between our house and hill. To put it more succinctly: fuck you, gravity, you loose this round.



(additional photos of the construction can be found here)

Our new wall boasts:

• Contractor-grade Keystone interlocking retaining wall blocks, each 18” wide, 8” high, 18” deep and weighing 108 lbs
  
• 6” of base gravel and 12” of back-fill gravel for proper drainage and mitigation of soil expansion-contraction stress
  
• Perforated PVC French drain all along the length with vertical topsoil area drains
  
• Operational electrical and water outlets installed beneath the wall to supply the yard
  
• Extra conduit pre-installed under the wall for future hot tub acquisition
  
• A new embedded staircase that goes up through the wall instead of over it, freeing up valuable patio space.

Almost as exciting as having the new wall in, is that our patio has been reclaimed. Never have bare cement pads looked so good. The last of the rubble pile from the old wall was spirited away by the contractor, the whole area got a good hose-down, and suddenly we had this pristine, empty patio to go with our new wall. I got so used to it looking like a construction site it still surprises me every time I look out the window. Ahh. It's good to be done....

...Now on to the next project!