Retaining Walls Atlanta

Failing Retaining Walls Atlanta – What are my options?

Failing retaining walls made of timber can be a common problem in the Atlanta area. Crosstie walls, timber walls, railroad tie walls and any other wood constructed wall may fail over time.  The failure may occur due to poor construction, poor materials or the wall has just reached it’s life expectancy and needs to be replaced.  Often these walls are surrounded by structures, driveways, pools or other factors that make removing and replacing the wall practically unfeasible.

How do you repair a failing timber wall?  Let’s look at a couple of types of failure and briefly describe the solutions.

For Timber walls that are leaning but the materials are in good shape:
Timber Wall Tiebacks
For this type of wall, it may be poorly constructed (dead men are lacking or designed improperly) or the conditions have changed (floods, drainage, loading, etc).  In either case we are assuming the materials have several years of life expectancy and the main failure point is the retaining system.  In this case, helical tieback anchors can be used to support the failing wall.  In most cases we can cut through the wall, install helical tieback anchors on the wall.  This picture is what a tieback timber wall can look like after this type of repair.

For timber walls that are leaning or failing but the materials are bad or the access is bad: Helical Tieback Anchors
When timber walls begin to lean and deteriote they often cannot be shored up because the life span of the wall and wood have reached their end.  For this type of problem, one solution involves installing helical tieback anchors (or soil nails) and then installing a concrete spray finish (shotcrete) on the exterior of the timber wall – thus creating a new wall.  Here a few photos to show the steps of this process.

For timber wall Failure:  Reinforced Timber Wall without Concrete
Once the reinforcement has been installed with proper waterproofing behind the soon to be sprayed finish.  Once the finish is put on the finished wall can look more like.

For total timber failure option 2: Wet Shotcrete Wall
If you have a situation where you have a failing timber wall there are several options to give a long term solution to this common problem. One option is the wet shotcrete wall. Call us today for more information and pricing at Atlas Piers.