[catbox9]

My mom's house has a terraced retaining wall that I believe has several issues. Unfortunately, the builder is unlicensed and she already paid them so she has no recourse there. They also claim that the issues I brought up are not worrisome and will not fix them. Maybe I'm being neurotic because I've had issues with unlicensed contractors before, but I feel there are issues with these walls and am wondering if they can be salvaged as she spent quite a bit building them. I have two main issues....

1. In her town walls up to 4 feet that do not support a surcharge do not require a permit. Her tallest wall is 44" tall from the base of the footing to the top, but the next wall starts 66" away from the top of the bottom wall. I could be wrong, but I think this constitutes a surcharge? The second wall is only 32" tall and the final wall starts 70" away so I think that's okay.
2. One of the walls appears to be unlevel for a section

Can this be fixed? How easily? Should she bother?

 

[Windows on Wash]

The town code should specify that horizontal distance from wall to wall that requires a permit (if there is such a requirement...but I can see no reason that they would).

Is there anything actually wrong with the wall? Did they accommodate drainage? The visual looks fine to the naked eye.

 

[dj3]

I see the imperfections you are talking about.
Actually you should worry more on how the wall was waterproofed (if at all) from behind, where it makes contact with the dirt. I'll take a wild guess - it's not waterproofed.
There are risks in hiring unlicensed workers, who often bypass building codes to save money or simply because they don't know how to do it correctly.
So what can you do now? You can correct it (expensive) or live with it. Just don't let it deprive you from a good night sleep.

 

[huesmann]

Is there anything actually wrong with the wall?

Other than not being level?

 

[Windows on Wash]

Other than not being level?

"appears to be unlevel for a section"

Perhaps a more formal and professional investigation of the wall by contractor is warranted here before we offer corrective advice on a problem that may not exist.

 

[huesmann]

I dunno, could just be the angle, but both walls appear to have leveling issues, and some uneven block setting.

 

[HotRodx10]

If the upper wall is horizontally farther back than the height of the lower wall, there is no surcharge from the upper wall under typical design methodology. The typical angle of influence is 45 + phi/2, where phi is the internal friction angle of the retained material. Even poor soil has a phi angle of about 20 degrees, so for a 4' high wall, there wouldn't be any surcharge unless the upper wall is less than 3' away (48" / TAN 55 = 33.6").


The wall not being straight or level is an aesthetic concern, but generally not a functional one, unless it gets really bad (1/4" vertical gaps between courses of blocks).

 

[catbox9]

Thanks for the advice so far. Further investigation and maybe the leveling issue is not completely accurate. The most unlevel blocks do not have rocks inside of them yet so maybe it's just temporarily in place as the blocks at the bottom appear level.


As for drainage, he put pipes behind each of the walls which are in place for drains. I guess I'll stop worrying.