I watched a wall settle 3 inches in 6 months, no joke

I did a retaining wall job for a guy in Akron last spring. Used the same clay mix and technique I always use. Came back this November to fix a gate, and the whole middle section had dropped almost 3 inches. Turns out the ground underneath had a hidden layer of decomposed shale that just gave up. I dug down and found water pooling in that spot too, so drainage was the real killer. Anybody else run into surprise settling like that even when the base looked solid?

3 comments

3 Comments

margaretramirez1mo ago

Could it be that maybe the wall just wasn't built right in the first place? I've seen a lot of guys blame the ground when really their base prep was the problem.

price.ray1mo ago

Yeah, I remember reading somewhere that most wall failures happen because nobody bothered to compact the base right. Sounds like that lines up with what you're saying.

laura_chen411mo ago

There's an old article from a landscaping site I came across that said 90% of retaining wall problems trace back to bad base prep. People skip the gravel and compaction because it's extra work, then act surprised when things shift. Sounds like your instincts are right on this one.