How to Build a Block Retaining Wall [DIY Guide] 

Great job! Proper mechanical stabilization with geotextiles, something that 90% of home retaining walls lack and the primary reason for failure. A lot of installers fail to understand the stress of lateral earth pressure.

I'm happy to watch a professional do it the same way we did two years ago since I'm just a DIYer. We didn't have the access to the top of the wall like you did - ours was a four foot retaining wall above an eight foot retaining wall on the hill behind our house that went up a further eighty feet. Instead of using a backhoe to dig out the four feet, we did it by hand with shovels and buckets of dirt poured down a chute. Instead of using a front loader to pour all that gravel, we used five gallon buckets carted up the stairs to the upper terrace. Bucket after bucket after bucket... We also carted up each brick by hand up those stairs. It was an entire summer for us and my teenagers refused to even come near it at the end, even when I was offering $100 for two hours work lol. Two years later and it's still standing up; which I consider a miracle.

Nice! Love seeing it done properly, that wall will last for years to Come.

Looks great! Never realized how much gravel was involved 😅

Nice wall great work only a few minor things that maybe the homeowner wouldn’t notice I would have made a midas cut end cap to give it the textured face on both sides also a few chipped blocks on there, for a retaining wall like that it would have been good to have left drain ports on the wall as well we know it’s not going anywhere but front drain ports would remove so much more pressure from the wall.

LOVED this Video. Thanks for sharing!

Couple critical points not mentioned is your toe block being embedded. On a wall that size I would embed at least 8” but 12” wouldn’t be unreasonable. Walls that high should be engineered but I know many just throw them up without it. Bury 2 rows would have been best. Also a face drain for every 20’ is standard practice as well. Pisa coping has only a handful of end caps on a pallet which kind of screws a project up because it’s only splitface on 1 side. I see the ends not finished yet probably because you need a saw. Also it looks more professional if you split your end caps and use corners to end your rows that have split face on 2 sides.

Looks very well done! The result you want is definitely asking that you be hands-on. Your knowledge and hard work will most definitely pay off!

Watching in the UK. Great build and beautiful location for your family to enjoy in the future. Keep up the great videos and take care 👍🏻

The wall looks great. Really nice job. Forney, TX

Beautiful work...God bless

You need a plate compactor, that hand tamper will probably cause you having some settling later on, a thin layer of stone dust would help you get better compaction and let you lay those blocks a little bit easier, nice job.

Loved it, helps with my planning. So how did you approach the quantity surveying, to determine how much material you would need?

Fantastic build! That retaining wall turned out great! Well done! 👍👍👏👏

Quite a project! I'd probably re-locate that gutter downspout behind the top right of the wall.

Good job. Will be better installation the pipe behind the one part of foundation the wall house.

Why not a concrete foundation? Looks great.🇬🇧

Can you link the retaining wall blocks you're using? Thank you

❓ Any thoughts on deadman/tiebacks, anchors, wall spikes (vs the beveled stack only), poured base/key (vs 1/8th height added below as was done here with ~10”-12” single brick layer over compresses sand/gravel footings)? I also didn’t see the footing pinned with rebar…. Or the geogrid pined to the beveled fit brick (just sandwiched)… or a double width deep into the cut slope at the foundation (more mass at the footing)… or a vertical drain down to the main drainage and/or water weep at the face… 📍 Just curious when to use these methods.

Doing this right now but have tree roots leftover from a tree that was removed. How do i prevent those roots from pressing the wall in the future?

Are you not suppose to add some type of fabric to separate the soil from the gravel so it does not mix and clog? I May be confused. I have seen people add fabric horizontally and some just vertically.

Could you please tell me where did you get the bricks! They are very perfect!

Have a good day production ideas

No issues with hydrostatic pressure from water behind the wall? Hopefully there are weep holes to allow the water to move through the wall.

How much did this end up costing ?

Do you do a geogrid every coarse

Curious what the breakdown of the cost was. There is a local business with lots of hilly land near me and they have this stuff 20’ and 40’ high. I already see mud infiltrating the block. I don’t think they did it right.

As mentioned, because of the height of this retaining wall, the depth of geo-grid should be no less than 6'. Permission from the neighbor should have been requested to achieve this goal. The 4' of geo-grid that was installed is inadequate especially considering that it is sandwiched between all of that round stone which is constantly pushing against the rear of the wall. 12" of crushed stone behind the block and properly compacted soil beyond that would serve as a better anchor for geo-grid. The angle of repose for soil is far greater than that of round drainage stone.

Oh man... You started talking about building and didn't mention geogrid for a few minutes. I was super worried!

I’m currently building a wall like this and manufacturer specs also call for 6inches of compacted gravel. However, the contractor making the wall decided to go beyond that and pour a concrete footing. Now the city inspector is stating I need to have an engineer certify that it’s okay to place the wall on concrete instead of gravel. Any cons with pouring a concrete footing instead of gravel?

Every AHJ will require a structural engineer's stamped set of calculations and detail(s) per IBC 105.2 exception 4. One approved set must be kept on-site at all times for the inspector, residential and commercial alike.

Just kind of wondering...the neighbour allowed you to run a loader through his back yard. Would he have objected to a cutback of 6 feet instead of 4 ft? I don't think it makes much of a difference...but just being nosey. I've done 2 walls similar in size to this one pre-RU-vid. I didn't do half the logic you put into this one. As as far as I know, both walls are still standing. One I saw in 2019 (built in about 1984). It's still solid but I didn't backfill with crush like you did nor did I put a sock on the perforated drainage pipe. The result was water weeping out of the wall. But...the owner planted some type of ivy that has completely covered the wall, sucking up the water. I don't know how saturated the ground is behind it but I would be putting an afternoon nap cot under the wall any time soon! Sometimes idiot engineering works out ok. Great video. If I was younger, I'd go out and build a wall like this tomorrow.

Not sure if you have a good enough connection between the wall and the mesh you are using into the embankment. There is a chance that this wall may not be able to hold that kind of back-pressure and be susceptible to slip-circle failure due to the thin footprint of the foundation.

I can’t see what’s stopping the wall rotating, hope I’m wrong. This is very technical work.

Using corrugated drainage pipe is a waste of time and money. If it gets clogged cleaning it out is almost impossible without destroying the pipe. Using schedule 40 PVC is worth the little extra and you'll seldom have any problems with it even many years after the project was completed.

Looks good, but did anyone see how they ended the wall? It looks like its a open ended wall. Really hope not

No offense, but I don't see those blocks as being large/heavy enough to hold back the forces of hydrostatic pressure when that hillside is full of water.

Please use protective knee pads, trust me, I have been suffering for years now because of not protecting my knees.

well, most of us were born like the crushed gravels that sits underneath everything.

🙂🙃🙂😎👌👍

WHAT! No 4' footings with rod iron going up into the wall??? That ain't right

Geo Grid

You should’ve pour a concrete footing.. I see this happens all the time in few years wall wall will sagg or come apart,,, it’s not good people paying a lot of money to you

The footings are just not good enough. The wall will simply lean out in a few years once the earth behind contracts and expands through the seasons. The mass below ground is just not enough. The wall is way to high for that footing. I would get the wall removed if i were the home owner. Im in the UK and there is no way building regulations would accept that standard of work.

Yeah, DIY w/ 9 people and a tractor.

Look good. Why no top shot? Why no end wall shot? Why did you skip the grouting? WHAT ARE YOU HIDING?!!😡

Hahaha all that waste of gravel insted of having like 4 fot of gravel behinde I see like 10 triaxle trucks beeing dumped for no reazon, but great job CAMARRADA IT LOOKS FANTASTIC

Those are really small blocks for a wall that high

How much should I expect to pay for something like this. Seems like one man landscaper claim what he can do what a proper company with engineers can do which could be far from the truth but they say so they can take more money but be still less than a proper company who knows what they are doing.

There is a lot to unpack here, but if you are watching this and thinking about taking on a large, structural wall like this, please hire a professional. It’s too big of a risk to DIY something like this.