Blog

What to Do When Your Retaining Wall is Failing

When repairing retaining walls, it is hard to find the right tools for the job. You spend time looking for products that will help to retain the repairs as you expect this job to be expensive. When looking for a product that will solve that issue, help the repairs last a lifetime, and protect your investments or your customers investment, wall anchors may be the best option for the job.

Wall anchors use long rods, that are typically driven through your retaining wall, they are then attached to the anchors that have been installed into the ground behind this wall. They are secured, and the plate is added, this will bring the wall back into the proper and desired position.

When trying to determine the best time to use wall anchors, you may notice the wall separating or leaning, losing soil, or other issues that show the soil/foundation is not secure. Wall anchors and helical piles are often a great way to restore the stability and integrity of your walls.

The three most common signs of a retaining wall in distress is:

• Collapsing or tilting. The retaining wall will begin to tilt, and this shows poor soil or bad construction. The tilting wall often happens if the footing is too small and cannot bear the weight of the soil that it is trying to secure or keep in place, or if the structure was not properly reinforced when it was originally built. Often, retaining walls need a weep to drain water, otherwise water will sit, which adds weight to the soil and clay, and this can cause the cracking or tilting.

• 

  The wall starts to crumble. When the concrete retaining wall begins to crumble, the concrete was probably not mixed properly initially, or is of a cheap quality that will not provide a long-term solution. The retaining wall that uses concrete should have steel rebar to handle the soil behind it, if this is missing or is of a low strength the wall will never be able to hold the soil properly and the wall will fail.
• Separation from walls. This is remarkably similar to collapsing or tilting retaining walls. The walls are separating due to poor construction and the wall may have not been designed to hold the weight that is bearing down onto it. This could also be caused by the inability to drain water, poor reinforcement, all which will need to be taken care of as soon as possible as it can cause extensive damage to homes, outdoor landscape, or the property as a whole.

• PierTech offers a full line of products that can help you to get this job done, with or without threaded wall anchors. When determining if you need wall anchors, helical, or another type of bracket the best thing you can do is to contact us. The help of our staff who are knowledgeable and experienced in this area will help you to make the most educated decision on what is appropriate for your project and what will give you the best outcome and results.

  Piertech makes repair easy, so do not waste anymore time and contact us today for more information on our patented products, equipment, and much more.