I've got a retaining wall approx 600-700mm tall (6-7 bricks), and approx 7m wide. It must have been there a long time, some of the bricks are falling apart, some have shifted slightly forward, mortar is falling apart in places. It's quite an eye sore. It is built from standard red bricks. Ideally I'd like it rendered and then painted - but I don't think it has sufficient waterproofing on the soil side, so I'm guessing the render would fail fairly quickly. Other options - Rebuild? - I've never built a wall before... - Build a second wall infront of the old one, waterproof in-between and render..? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
If you think the wall is salvageable, there are options to be considered without rebuilding. As a retaining wall, there is no reason the wall cannot remain in a constant state of dampness, so it is not imperative to waterproof from the back. A DIY option is to remove the soil at the back (300mm wide, along the length and height of the wall), place a DPM on the wall and backfill with pebbles, with turf or paving at the top -whatever is there now. Introduce weep holes at the bottom so any moisture building up behind the wall will seep out to the lower level through the weep holes, but the pebbles won't fall through. Another option is to use specialists who will use Flexcrete or similar product to repairs the wall and render over. Flexcrete render is structural, won't blow and is breathable. A decent company may provide a warranty.
Thanks for you reply. Removing the soil is what I was hoping to avoid as it's quite a lot to dig out! Do you know of any rendering products that could withstand the dampness of the wall, as it currently is now?
Flexcrete or Sika. There are a couple of others too. Contact the technical rep for your area and they should be able to recommend approved contractors to install their product.
Photo's would help. But, if it's has bad as you say,shifted, bricks in bad state, would be safer then to completely rebuilding it, your looking at roughly 112 100mm concrete blocks if laid them flat- 7 courses. Once rebuilt, you can always render it, then paint it, I would also get a few quotes for rebuilding it.
I am going to replace the top 3 rows of bricks as the lower half seem to be ok. This should be easy enough as I have existing wall to align with I will dig down the earth side too in order to install a DPM. Can anyone recommend the best DPM to use?
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