Job sites don't always go as planned BUT sometimes contractors DO BAD WORK & cut corners. How to spot red flags plus RAIN hits us & we find 2 walls buried instead of 1. We share how we handle road blocks and obstacles.
Third time I've watched this... Third time I've ... LOST MY COFFEE at the "Master Baser" line. Knew it was coming.. Still cackled. Keep them coming. I'm watching this for influence. We just bought our first house, and 1/3 of the property is on a grade down 30 ft from the rest. Want to build some small pads into the back at different levels for a fire pit, some walkways, etc and use the rest of the space. This is helping.
Hi, just came across this , I’m from across the pond . awe inspiring of your professionalism and pride taken with every job , along with a great happy attitude , ur a credit to the construction industry in showing how it should be done , thanks for taking the time to share with us the insight of your company , stay safe and look forward to the next episode
@@Dirtmonkey , ur so welcome and well deserved , been in the gas and oil industry for some 30 x years repairing and fixing boilers etc and useto watch other trades on site , then seeing their work after was sometimes shocking of how they bodged things , so when I came across your channel it was so refreshing seeing things being done with such care and professionalism . Did see another channel called D and J projects from the uk and also like ur goodself take a lot of pride in there work, hopefully u might enjoy that seeing how things compare between the USA and UK , have no association with them just thought u might like it , sorry I’m waffling , lol, thanks again , stay safe 👍👍
Even though our property is mostly level and will never need a retaining wall, it's always good to see the right way to do them. I always try to learn the right way to do things, even if I don't have to do them. I have so much un-used knowledge but much more useful wisdom by watching experts. Thanks for sharing the wisdom! I watch some professionals that are not experts and can spot their mistakes. Thank you for the video!
I learned how to build big walls, just gabion and rip rap stones, working for railroad companies. By watching your videos a lot of what I did at my old job, came to my memories. No glue, no mortar but walls still stand for decades or centuries!!!
Hey Stan. Guess who is going up to their cabin for the first time this year? I am and I’m super excited to freshen up my tractor skills and backhoe skills. Currently regrading part of a barn demolition that we started last year but didn’t finish burying the concrete pad and cinder blocks. We probably shouldn’t have buried them but we had no way of getting he concrete pad broken up so we just decided to bury it. And since the soil isn’t that great for grading it should make things interesting. Want to sent that kubota my way so it can have a friend? What are you doing this weekend? Have a great weekend Stan.
Burying blocks like that really isn't that bad. Its like burying rock in a way. Im heading north to shoot a grading video experimenting with a new MINI hydra bucket on my MINI loader. Not sure how this will go. I hope you have.a blast running tractors and backhoes! Sounds like we both are having fun this weekend!
Thanks for sharing video with us again, Recently I found some really helpful tools for blocks and pavers you should check it up especially would help laying those blocks with excavator. I purchased clamp for big slabs E BL -980 & clamp for blocks and big pavers E BL-450. Really good tools.
Stan, I think you misspoke in one of the previo vids in this series regarding the versa lok wall blocks when you said you had never mentioned the reasons you used them before (not your exact wording) but I can tell ya I know you have. I have been watching your stuff since 2017 when I was Guido to your channel for a paver patio and have been hooked. This channel was the reason we went with versa lok wall blocks at my house. Yes they still work great and do what they are supposed to. Interesting stuff. I am tackling a patio in backyard with leftover 300 square of techo blok pavers right now, 9 inches of crusher run compacted in 2 to 4 inch lifts, one inch of masonry sand to bed em done with one inch metal pipes and screed rails, just like you have said.
NO. we never use filter fabric behind a retaining wall UNLESS its to wrap the drainage zone ONLY IF that drainagae zone could be subjected to the high water table. Then you wrap just the drainage zone but often times extend that drainage zone to over 6-9 feet behind the wall. OTHERWISE NEVER use filter fabric as it can cause hydrostatic hotspots behind your wall. That can lead to funneling which is not good. The mininum drainage requirement is 12" BUT Watch my videos and you'll see we commonly double to triple that. BUT NEVER DO WE USE FABRIC👊😃
Hey Stan just wanted to thank you for the advise to build a ramp to stack sand high. It worked great! I got a huge pile out of it. Great video! Love the videos!
Stan, in reference to matching sections, make sure your using 4 or 5 different pallets of material for large walls so color differences are spread out. . As to core fill please take note of the block manufactures recommendations as to compacting the core fill, I know of a couple of them that require compaction of the cores. I like you prefer solid block and the bigger the better.
When you first mentioned masterbaser I misunderstood you and thought "Gee, I should apply for a job with that crew" but then I listened more closely and discovered, rats, I wasn't qualified after all...
In a previous video, you showed the importance of basing the first course a 1/4 bubble to the back, so the geogrid does not tip the wall forward. You may have covered this in a previous video, but how do you level the corners when you have a return? If the base on both sides is leaned back, how do they meet up?
Stan I hope your day was amazing my day was awesome we had five guys for lunch and did a lot of shopping and I have two A’s and one P and then we go to red lobster tomorrow with my aunt and uncle and for dinner tonight we had Chinese because it started to rain and we were originally going to have hotdogs but unfortunately because it rained we couldn’t grill and to be honest grilling hotdogs is the way to go LOL.i hope your week went swell, your instagram posts are a sight to see lol. I was so glad to be a part of that live give away. You guys really went into detail about how to appropriately charge and stand firm, after i listened to your answer, i felt so much kore better bout giving a quote to a customer for mowing their lawns, and it just o happened that Spencer’s lawn are, they had a video last night and it was similar to what you guys had said. I was getting the information from masters of the trade. And i wanted to thank you. For no only answering g the question. But for being a good RU-vid, and above all a good friend. It’s gonna be aiming almost all emporia day weekend, old glory will be up and i will reflect on why we celebrate. Well Stan, i hope you, the crew, and the youtube family have a fun safe Memorial Day weekend. God bless go get em, your pal Alexander costa
This is not Mn DOT design. I would have to deepen the footing to beyond frost or 4 feet. embed a mininum of 2 feet of block- even if only 6" is showing(been there done that). I also need a higher density block- to withstand more severe frost cycles. MN/DOT walls are overly complicated. Im glad I do these.
If the foundation/base is bad then nothing else is good no matter what you do. Timber retaining walls look good, but no matter what you do to treat the wood it will eventually decompose and fall apart and if not immediately dealt with the dirt it is holding back will collapse. Personally, if you can afford it, I think a concrete retaining wall as retaining wall and timber as a facade for appearance would be ideal. That way when the timber eventually gets bad you can just strip it off the retaining wall and put new timber up. More expensive up front but will save a ton in the future.
@@Dirtmonkey True. But some people like the aesthetics of wood over boulders, concrete, or blocks. But as this video proves, wood,specially if in direct contact with soil, just does not have the durability to last like a properly done boulder, concrete, or block retaining wall; which could potentially last for centuries if not millennia. So if you want a retaining wall that looks like wood and that will last a much longer time, a concrete retaining wall with a wood facade that can be replaced if necessary would be the cheaper way to go in the long term. Me, personally, I like wood, but I like my money more so I would go with the blocks. They are an extremely close second to wood and a lot better looking than concrete.
Hey Stan. Enjoying the vids more and more every view I give you😉 lol but truly they’re interesting. Watching Alex develop into what he has is amazing. Sam as well
12:30 - Since we have to do as-builts for several of the local municipalities and counties where we do engineering plans, lack of an air gap on the sump pump or downspout discharges is one of the items that I regularly demand corrected. That and for some reason people like putting window wells at grade rather than above it. Also, out of curiosity, what kind of pitch did you put between the rear door and the top of the wall?
@@Dirtmonkey this reply made me respect you so much as a new viewer! Such a common sight in this industry for people to think they know everything and feel insulted when someone else has another idea, glad to see someone who's not like that 😀
And I also sometimes get aluminum screed board like a 10ft or 12ft and put it behind the wall block to keep it straight but that also depends on what type of block I'm using
Stan I enjoy watching your work! One question I have is why don’t you use landscape fabric to separate the dirt and crushed stone? I may be wrong but from my understanding, the fabric prevents the dirt from mixing with crushed stone, thus allowing better drainage. Thanks
The only thing i do different so far is I use a bigger level as I get longer down my wall so I keep a true number if you use the little one you lose it by a little bit
A little late to the partay but darn son, that is one beauitful wall. Who knew you could make an asthetically pleasing, fully supported and functional wall! Go Dirt Monkey!
Hey Stan how about a definitive guide on what fabrics go where and why . thanks for all the awesome content. How do you use fabric behind small boulders and also use geogrid ?
Hi Stan, I’m very much enjoying your channel, there’s a lot of information packed into these videos, I’m curious as to how you would approach putting a fence or hand rail on or close to a retaining wall to avoid placing a surcharge on the wall?
You have a damn good crew. Those guys got a lot done in a short amount of time. Are you having trouble getting materials such as the blocks? It's been a nightmare for us
@@Dirtmonkey it was made out of some weird brick design, the shape is almost like an anchor, if you have an email Ill send you them if your interested!
These videos have been very helpful. How do we know if the contractor is good or not? I have a small retaining wall I need replaced,the previous owner just built one with stones from the property and it is falling apart, I don't want to have to replace it again in a few years. I'm in RI.
At the very beginning of this job y'all said something about the neighbor was a weird one with setting up all the cameras pointed at y'all, has she said or tries anything?
Hey Stan, is there a benefit to using the corrugated drain tile instead of a rigid perforated pipe? I've been doing commercial and residential excavation for 15 years and have only ever used sdr35 or sewer and drain pipe for drainage behind a wall and I'm curious to know if there is beneficial reason to use drain tile.
Filed flexibility. We have to be to able to alter the grade up and down and work around sometimes complex curves and corners. and heres the wildest part - that draintile is not needed. The way we buikld these doesn't require them. we put them in for sheer peace of mind to the customer and city.
Flexibility was my assumption, thank you for the speedy reply. On another note, your videos are fantastic, keep up the great work. My coworkers and I look forward to watching your videos everyday when we take lunch. Thank you for all that you do, and have a great memorial day weekend.
It was good-down to structural subbase. Some blackish material can still be structural as long as their is no organic content. a soil engineer taught me how to see the differences
When you're back-filling the wall are you doing a layer of class 5 and then a layer of native soil, layer of class 5, layer of soil etc? If so, what is the advantage over just using class 5 the whole way up? Thanks!
I have a house in your area that has a railroad tie retaining wall that is falling over. I got a quote for 2800 to dead man the wall or something like that. Have you heard of this? It looks like they plan to bury some kind of block in the yard to keep the wall from falling over by anchoring it. Is this worth the money? Is the price good? Let me know if you got time.
Maybe you could tie back the wall to keep it from falling over much more, but I don't think that'd be an actual solution to your problem. We tore out several railroad tie retaining walls to replace with block a couple of weeks ago, and the previous homeowners had block installed in front of the failing wall. It seemed like a very expensive bandaid, since nothing was done to prevent water pressure from pushing the wall out more. I don't see a retaining wall lasting without rock and drain tile behind it.
@@NickR.. Thank you for the reply. I am torn between just spending a little money now to keep it up until I can afford to fix it the right way or just waiting until it fails and replacing the whole thing.
She was a nightmare the entire time, she was finally talking then down the last day we were there. I got a couple crazy stories about her from the homeowner, I think they’ll be in the next video
We don't care if the base drains. Thats a nice by product of using that material but not the reason. The main reason we use 3/4 clear as base is pure strenght. Its simply the best materials you can use.
Technically not within 3 feet of the back of the wall- but thats a ruler we break becasue I would rather risk a blowout during construction- then settling for years after ward that lead to hydrostatic cavities behind the wall.
