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Do I need a retaining wall outside shed?

830 Views 6 Replies 4 Participants Last post by  Beginner2
Hello great forum people,

I'm continuing with my pizza oven project. Th oven is nearly done as the picture shows.




Now I need to make a roof structure to protect the oven from the weather. I intend to do a simple shed style roof sloping front to back, but I want to add a section to it so I can have a cooking table and also a shed connected under the same roof to store some tools, have a small work bench etc. This is all DIY and I am by no means very experienced but I like such kind of projects like most others do to get a break from family and keyboard activities. I've begun digging out a bit and it currently looks like this:



As the image shows, I'm building all this on a slope, so need to dig out a lot of soil to level. Planning to dig deeper post holes and pour 6" concrete post stands to anchor wooden 4by4s for the corners of the roof structure.

We get the occasional strong rain and I know this is going to require some drainage. Also due to the slope situation. So I am thinking whether I need to also make a 3' retaining wall (CMU with cores grouted, rebar etc.) to keep the pressure of the slope away from the oven stand (could have done that before the oven, but didn't...) and away from the shed that I'm planning to build next to the pizza oven stand itself. I've drawn a simple diagram outlining my idea. But since I've never done anything like this before, I wanted to share it for comments and caution or things I need to keep in mind before going ahead with the excavating and digging.



The much easier way out for the shed and roof structure would be just to dig to level of the oven stand foundation and then connect CMUs with the oven stand, and throw a drainage pipe behind the wall and call it a day, i.e. without retaining wall itself. But I am afraid then that the pressure of the sloping soil which already sits right up against the oven stand would push the oven stand and shed over time due to erosion and water flow. Is that a warranted concern, and how would you go about doing this?
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How tall will the wall be? 8" block are ok for short retaining walls but when they get higher it's best to use 12" block. You do intend to pour a footer, correct?
It's best to have a suitably sized concrete footer if you are going to use block, especially with a retaining wall. They sell stackable 'brick/stone' that doesn't require a footer although I've never personally used them. IMO 3' would be the maximum height you could get by with using 8" block .... but I'm a painter, not a mason. Hopefully those that know more will be along later.
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