By Nicholas HughesPosted on

One of the most interesting aspects of landscaping is retaining walls. They can compete with
beautiful spring flower collections, but they are essential to many outdoor landscaping designs.
To make an area level enough to house an outdoor patio set, a job for a retaining walls is
possible. Retaining walls can be very interesting. They can be made from stone or concrete and
can even be replicated to look like brick walls. Below are just some of the causes of retaining
walls that you might not have thought about.


The reason that a retaining wall is referred to as “monolithic” is because it’s composed of two
different types of material. The first type of material is a combination of precast concrete slabs
and vertically cast iron or steel panels. Horizon board, a layer of horizontally-cast aggregate, is
the second type of material. Retaining walls usually use the first type of material. In some cases
though, they will use the second.


The reason that a retaining wall is referred to as “sliding failures” is because there are multiple
layers of material that move in the same pattern. These layers can cause lateral sliding at the
top of the wall, with horizontal sliding failures being most common. When one layer of material
slides on top of another, lateral sliding failures can occur. Because of their different heights,
slabs that are precast concrete slabs will slide over each other. Precast concrete panels,
however, will cause the slabs to slide on top of each other because of their thickness.


One of the biggest causes of sliding failures behind retaining walls is because of the lack of
mechanical stability. Any structure that has weight on its side will have some force behind it. This
is usually gravity or air resistance. Sometimes, it is the lateral earth pressure.

Retaining walls is one example. Let’s say that a retaining wall is placed 6 feet away from a
house. If the wall was to fail, the pressure from the air would cause it to move towards the
house. This could cause severe damage, especially as the entire house would be pulled towards
the wall by the weight of its retaining wall. The entire structure could easily fall if this happened.


Structures that rely on steel reinforcement are another example of gravity’s effect on retaining
walls. To maintain structural stability, steel reinforcement is usually placed around the structure.
However, this reinforcement does not provide enough support to withstand the constant pulls
from gravity. If the structure were ever to crumble, the enormous amount of force applied would
cause the retaining walls to buckle and collapse.


Now one of the main reasons why the failure of retaining walls occurs is because these
structures are built relying on hydrostatic pressure being exerted on them. The structure simply
wouldn’t be able to withstand the pulling and pushing of gravity. If the base of the wall were built
with insufficient ground drain, the hydrostatic pressure would force excess groundwater into
areas where it did not belong. Without adequate drainage, this water could end up being pooling
underneath the retaining walls and accumulating into a big mess.


The third major reason why these walls fail to work is because most homeowners build their
retaining walls along a slope. Most people build their houses on sloping lands, because the
slopes are flatter and less susceptible to changes in the ground such as creeping clay or other
soils. You should ensure that your soil is well-drained if you plan to build your home on a slope

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