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I removed an 5 foot high old retaining wall built with railway ties that extended from the house foundation beginning about 3.5 feet from the corner and extending out at a 90 degree angle for about 40 feet along the side of the driveway. The foundation there has a door opening into the basement garage and the floor is level with the driveway. The retaining wall came to within about 5" of the garage door frame. I removed the earth behind the retaining wall back 3 feet to the corner of the foundation to expose the rest of the concrete wall. I can't push the new retaining wall further back than the corner of the house because it will be getting too close to the well. I don't actually know the precise location of the well, but I do know that it is behind there somewhere. I don't want to take away too much earth or the pipe will freeze in the winter. The pipe runs parallel to the retaining wall and into an extension in the basement at the side of the house, behind the garage.
1. I started this project because water was getting into the garage. The concrete floor is seriously cracked and has heaved because of the freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw.
2. There was no slope in the driveway in front of the garage door. I had a backhoe in to fix the grade but we descovered bedrock in the driveway about 15 feet in front of the garage door (then rising up 4.5 feet behind the old retaining wall). The best we could do was an 8" grade in the driveway 30 feet from the garage door.
3. I found a broken cinder block (i.e. a 3" hole horizontally from the outside to the inside of the house). It is the bottom block of the foundation just next to the garage door opening on the side closest to the old retaining wall. I hadn't noticed it before because it was hidden by the door frame on the inside and by dirt on the outside. The hole has been filled with foam gap filler. How serious is this problem? What do I do now? (I posted this previously the forum on walls; probably the wrong forum).
4. I plan to build a new retaining wall using interlock but beginning at the corner of the house and making it as short as possible, maybe 3 feet long (but still 5 feet high), then grading and sodding the rest of it. After removing the dirt behind the old retaining wall, I found that some black stuff (tar?) had been applied to the foundation for about 10 inches from the corner. What do I do at the point were the new wall butts against the foundation wall to prevent water from seeping through a crack there. Can I use some kind of adhesive to seal the crack between the end of the new retaining wall and the foundation?
5. How do I finish the surface of the foundation wall that I have exposed by removing the dirt behind the old retaining wall?
6. I wanted to put a French drain behind the new retaining wall, but I can't figure out where to send it because of the big rock and the shallow slope in the driveway. Any ideas?
1. I started this project because water was getting into the garage. The concrete floor is seriously cracked and has heaved because of the freeze/thaw/freeze/thaw.
2. There was no slope in the driveway in front of the garage door. I had a backhoe in to fix the grade but we descovered bedrock in the driveway about 15 feet in front of the garage door (then rising up 4.5 feet behind the old retaining wall). The best we could do was an 8" grade in the driveway 30 feet from the garage door.
3. I found a broken cinder block (i.e. a 3" hole horizontally from the outside to the inside of the house). It is the bottom block of the foundation just next to the garage door opening on the side closest to the old retaining wall. I hadn't noticed it before because it was hidden by the door frame on the inside and by dirt on the outside. The hole has been filled with foam gap filler. How serious is this problem? What do I do now? (I posted this previously the forum on walls; probably the wrong forum).
4. I plan to build a new retaining wall using interlock but beginning at the corner of the house and making it as short as possible, maybe 3 feet long (but still 5 feet high), then grading and sodding the rest of it. After removing the dirt behind the old retaining wall, I found that some black stuff (tar?) had been applied to the foundation for about 10 inches from the corner. What do I do at the point were the new wall butts against the foundation wall to prevent water from seeping through a crack there. Can I use some kind of adhesive to seal the crack between the end of the new retaining wall and the foundation?
5. How do I finish the surface of the foundation wall that I have exposed by removing the dirt behind the old retaining wall?
6. I wanted to put a French drain behind the new retaining wall, but I can't figure out where to send it because of the big rock and the shallow slope in the driveway. Any ideas?
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