What Are The Major Characteristics Of Retaining walls? If you possess a garden that is unevenly elevated, then you need to install a retaining wall. This is the only way for preventing the runoff of the soil and creating a mess at the lower level. Depending on the landscape’s state, you can easily choose gravity, cantilever, anchored, counterfort & also sheet pile walls. Retaining walls not only protect your landscape areas, but they can also keep your outdoor neat and clean. What Are The Major Characteristics Of Retaining walls?
Cantilever walls
They cantilever walls usually have irregular thickness with the bottom of these walls being considerably thicker than what they are towards the top. There is a slab at the base on which the wall rests. This particular slab absorbs heavyweight. Construction of a cantilever wall is usually not an easy job and this should not be performed yourself even if you have the confidence of being a skilled DIYer. There is an accurate calculation of the dimensions required which can be done by an expert professional only. A major advantage of cantilever walls is that they do not use much of the materials because the design is based on the concept of minimalism. You can install this retaining wall in your property by expert professionals and you must check their experience level before you hire.
Gravity walls
A gravity wall cannot bear heavyweight like a cantilever wall. They are usually lesser complex to be built and do not cost as much. From the top-down, the gravity walls resemble cantilever walls but do not have a second lever arm. This specific difference & the buttresses are missing in the gravity walls. This considerably decreases the efficiency but not that much for the smaller walls. For extended stability, a concrete footing is constructed with the help of the professional excavators.
Anchored walls
The anchored walls make use of the anchors in the form of the cables and are being driven by rock and soil. Requiring the techniques of complex construction, they are usually more expensive as compared to the other forms of the retaining walls. They are indeed more effective for the purpose of handling higher loads.
Counterfort walls
Counterfort walls very closely resemble the cantilever walls but the addition of the concrete webbings on the rear which connect the lever arm and the call make it different from cantilever walls. This added feature usually means that the walls are indeed able to counter shear forces caused by the earth. As such, the counterfort walls are indeed the best solution for the high walls of 25 feet and even more. They are economical as compared to the cantilever walls. Even you can design the same walls in the surrounding areas of your property and use the same materials to make your boundary walls.
Sheet pile walls
Sheet pile walls are built using steel, wood, or vinyl planks in order to hold them up like the support which is being used when planting the tender saplings. The soil on both sides of the piles holds them up towards the bottom. If the piles can bear the soil’s bending forces, the wall can very well endure the heavy loads. You can build this retaining wall with different kinds of materials, but concrete is a common choice as it is easy to be built and sets fast. This will be used in the concrete block forms and possess various sizes and thicknesses.
The above-discussed forms of retaining walls are very commonly used in the landscapes and should be judiciously chosen depending on the nature of the landscape that you have. It is better to discuss your requirements with experts who have enough experience in this field and they can suggest the best retaining walls after examine your property.
