Advice on garden retaining wall

Ginger83

I want to build a 60 feet long retaining wall in the garden and behind this is a bank of clay 3 feet high rising to 8 feet.

Any advice please? I was thinking of using 12 inch foot blocks on their flat with pillars.

Lumen

Get an engineer to spec it.

The design you're suggesting is for a freestanding wall, not a retaining wall.

Not sure what you mean by 3 feet rising to 8. Is that sloping perpendicular to or parallel to the wall? If perpendicular, that rise represents a surcharge, and even if the bank is stable now, you will have hydrostatic pressure once there's a wall built which will need to be accounted for and relieved by drainage.

There's not enough detail in your post and in any case specific structural advise is against the forum charter.

edit: for what it's worth, I have walls like this in my garden (that came with the house) and whilst they haven't failed completely they are cracked, and in places I wouldn't have expected. Do it right, do it once.

Ginger83

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119182132#Comment_119182132

Thanks the 3 feet to 8 rise runs parallel to the wall

Lumen

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119182525#Comment_119182525

Ah, OK. Well a rule of thumb is anything under 3ft/1m is a gravity wall, i.e. will hold up against the pressure with its own weight, and anything taller than that needs "engineering".

8ft is big.