Posted on 06/18/2012 8:28:00 AM PDT by bgill
My river wall is washing out from under the old cement wall. It's being caused by wakes from ski boats. There's about 6 feet of land along the wall that needs to be filled in with rock. I will be doing everything myself by hand and wheel barrowing the rock down a small hill so it can't be large rocks.
The question is what size rock? Do I put larger rocks on the bottom and layer smaller on top of that? I was planning on 1 and 2 size but can get 3 and 4 size. What is best to keep the soil from being pulled/sucked/washed from below?
We’ve used this method and it does look like stone, once the paper washes away. (With the combination of the hot Texas sun and the water, this happens pretty quick.)
Get an engineer to look at it and make suggestions. The cost is well worth it. Tell him you want to try a DIY fix and he can make recommendations based on that.
Or, he may tell you you are nuts and need to hire it done.
In any event, without an engineer you will just be guessing at what to do and probably waste your money and about a year of backbreaking effort.
Personally, I think you are looking at putting the rock on the wrong side of the existing retaining wall, but I haven’t seen it.
If you decide to use rock and move it by wheelbarrow, try to get a truckload of rock dumped as close to the existing wall as possible.
If you buy rock directly from a quarry, you will get a much better price than from a landscape materials place, and the quarry will know truckers who will haul it for you.
BTW, do any ‘home repairs after the sun goes down and in between Preditor drone sweeps that have landed several neighbors in environmental court.
I agree.
Thanks all for your help and suggestions.
Well, since you did say 'any'...
Buy some pontoons for your house and let the wall wash away ! House boat taxes should be lower than a permanent structure and if the taxers don't see it that way then buy an outboard motor and move away !!!
After placing the filter place bedding stone (3-4” diameter rock)on top of the filter.
In a lake, Class I riprap will work fine and you can place it by hand, if needed. (10% of rocks weigh more than 50 pounds, 50% weigh less than 25 pounds)
Let you rock extend out from the waterside face of the wall about 3 or 4 feet (mindful that some idiot could run over it) and taper it up to the wall at least 1/2 the distance of your horizontal (more if possible)
Oh and it you don’t already have it, make sure you get your ACOE permit and local Department of Environmental Protectionand local building permits before doing anything. (Adds 1 or 2 years to you projeect duration)
What part of Texas are you in? Our property taxes are very high here in Montgomery county, Tx.
They don’t need a drone to see what you are doing. A DEP enforcer came on one of my jobs with a google map wanting to know where a small building (we had demolished few days before) had gone. Well, we tore it down - and didn’t give them 7 day notice that we were tearing it down. (Their fine started at $14,000, but I got it reduced to $4,000.
I’ve removed seawall riprap and concrete rubble that people had paid 30k to have installed becuase they were being fined $1000/day for not having permits to place it.
Steel sheetpile are the best but very expensive. I put in 130 foot steel sheet pile wall last summer (25’ sheets) with AB Chance tiebacks and concrete wall cap for $438,000.
Wise move ... my yard is decorated with nice sized rocks the gas company pulled out of the ground when putting in the natural gas lines down my road. I have a few really nice sized boulders, not too large but larger than one person can move (to steal). The gas company even brought the chunks up with their backhoe and dropped them where I wanted them. It was the lest expensive way for them to dispose of the ‘obstructions’.
You got robbed. Seriously. They saw you coming.
The steel for those specs was probably under $2000 off the boat from china.
yup kinda sucks although its like a shared drive but a bit diff.......If your neigbors sea wall retaing wall etc is “done” than guess what yours is next no matter what you do.....Buyer be ware...look to the left look to the right and do it again
BTW, do any ‘home repairs after the sun goes down and in between Preditor drone sweeps that have landed several neighbors in environmental court.
I installed the wall - didn’t get robbed. The sheets were domestic (LB Foster PZC 14 about $0.72/lb)
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