Drainage Behind Retaining Wall: How to Stop Retaining Walls from Failing

There are many reasons why a retaining wall will fail. However, the unifying thread through all of those failures is water. Walls fail because the builder did not use enough class 5  fill. Without the right amount of base material, water builds up underneath the wall and pushes the base layer out. Retaining walls also fail because the base layer was not leveled properly. An unlevel base layer allows areas for water to wash away certain sections more than others, which creates an unstable wall. In other failed walls, we’ve seen water collect behind the wall. This collected water freezes and expands which pushes on the wall, causing it to fall over. The common thread through all of these problems is improper preparation for water.