There are lots of great tips out there for building a retaining wall on your own. However, I've often seen these written without including the most important safety step- calling 811, a free service, that will help you ensure that you do not accidentally cut into service lines. This is not only a safety issue, but it could cost you big money if you accidentally cut a line (not to mention saving you from the angry neighbors that just lost a utility because you cut the line)!
There's more info about 811 here, and some additional retaining wall info that might be helpful to you: http://info.basalite.com/blog/
Best of luck, Happy Building!
Terrie

On Tue, 8 Jan 2013 16:29:29 -0800 (PST),
wrote:


There are lots of great tips out there for building a retaining wall on your own. However, I've often seen these written without including the most important safety step- calling 811, a free service, that will help you ensure that you do not accidentally cut into service lines. This is not only a safety issue, but it could cost you big money if you accidentally cut a line (not to mention saving you from the angry neighbors that just lost a utility because you cut the line)!
There's more info about 811 here, and some additional retaining wall info that might be helpful to you: http://info.basalite.com/blog/
Best of luck, Happy Building!

Call an engineer.

On Jan 9, 2:25*pm, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Jan 9, 11:11*am, Doug wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:58:31 -0500, wrote:
On Tue, 8 Jan 2013 16:29:29 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

There are lots of great tips out there for building a retaining wall on your own. * ...snip...

Call an engineer.

Better to call the individual utility companies and ask them. * Where
I live, I've seen some utility companies advertise to call them before
digging.

Not *always* better to call the individual utilities.

When I called my power company I was told to call the statewide "Dig
safely" organization. They are the ones that are contracted to stick
the little flags in the ground marking all underground utilites.

Funny story about that...

About a month ago I came home to find yellow "gas" flags all over my
neighborhood, covering about 4 streets, including about 5 flags in my
own yard. My wife happened to be home that day and asked the "flag
sticker" what was going on. He said that he was from Dig Safely and
all he knew was that he was told to map out the gas main in the
neighborhood for an upcoming gas main replacement project. He was not
able to tell her when the job was scheduled for and he was not told to
mark anything other than the gas main.

The next day I called my local gas company's customer service
department, who routed me to Dig Safely, who routed me back to the gas
company, but to the specific planner for the project. I was told that
the project was not scheduled to start for at least 18 months, but the
maps were so messed up that they wanted to actually trace and mark the
gas main so that the engineers could go on site and update the map.

I asked how long she thought it would take for the engineers to
complete their task, since I really didn't want flags in my yard for
18 months. She said it really didn't matter how long it took them to
get out there because state law says that the flags expire after 10
days. She said that if Dig Safely or the engineers don't remove the
flags by the 10th day, I could pull them out myself.

I gave it a full 2 weeks and then removed all the flags that were not
on private property along my dog walking route. Some of the yards
still have flags in them, but right now they are buried with snow.

I stopped to see my best friend one day, they were about to start
construction on a interstate adjacent to his home, as a matter of fact
the state had bought the corner of his property, and removed a dozen
or so nearby homes.

upon seeing the flags, and no one was home i moved the flags around
so it looked like they would take half his yard, taking his home.

i worked quickly and left.

when the family got home bills son reported dad said oh bob must of
been here.......

its tough, no one trusts me

On Jan 9, 11:37*am, Doug wrote:
On Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:53:22 -0500, wrote:
On Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:15:48 -0600, Doug
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:58:31 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jan 2013 16:29:29 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

There are lots of great tips out there for building a retaining wall on your own.
...snip...

Call an engineer.

Better to call the individual utility companies and ask them. * Where
I live, I've seen some utility companies advertise to call them before
digging.

Idiot. *Call an engineer to design the retaining wall. *Who's digging?

Reread his post idiot.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Damn, hasn't some of you who posted in the last 2 days noticed the
original post was made in June, 1999?

Red wrote:
On Jan 9, 11:37 am, Doug wrote:
On Wed, 09 Jan 2013 11:53:22 -0500, wrote:
On Wed, 09 Jan 2013 10:15:48 -0600, Doug
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Jan 2013 19:58:31 -0500, wrote:

On Tue, 8 Jan 2013 16:29:29 -0800 (PST),
wrote:

There are lots of great tips out there for building a retaining wall on your own.
...snip...

Call an engineer.

Better to call the individual utility companies and ask them. Where
I live, I've seen some utility companies advertise to call them before
digging.

Idiot. Call an engineer to design the retaining wall. Who's digging?

Reread his post idiot.- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Damn, hasn't some of you who posted in the last 2 days noticed the
original post was made in June, 1999?

Have you ever tried to build a retaining wall with those darn blocks? It
takes a while to get them lined up correctly.