Retaining Wall Demo/Build
Priorities: Permanent Solution For Failed Retaining WallChallenges: Maintain Integrity of Walls on Adjacent Properties, Safe UninstallSolutions: Methodical Tear-Out Techniques, Sequenced Install
The general contractor that built this client’s neighborhood had graded each back yard by installing a retaining wall several feet high with railroad ties.
After thirty-plus years, that structure had failed.
Our client’s 63-foot section of the wall had collapsed, creating an unsightly mess and allowing the wildflower garden they had planted above to seep through the resulting cracks.
Maas Verde designed a new cut limestone block wall with a buried deluge drain pipe to permanently resolve the issue. The solution required our team to tear out the 63-foot segment without affecting the adjacent properties. The team would then build the wall to match property grade on top of a poured concrete footer.
Tear-out and construction took only two days.
Safety was a primary concern in removal, since the existing structure was tied together with rusted nine inch nails and potentially harbored ground hornets. Maas Verde cut the ties inside our client’s property line strategically, to avoid overburdening ties that were stressed beyond the fence line. Existing fence posts provide backup support for these adjacent walls.
Efficiency was key to the construction process. To seat the wall most securely, our team needed to pour the footer and lay the first course of 6” limestone blocks simultaneously. While one crew operated a mixer and shuttled loads of mixed concrete, another tooled the mixture in the trench, then laid and leveled blocks.
The first course of stones set overnight, and the team returned the next day to complete the perforated drainpipe and finish the dry-set wall. We added tie-backs for structural security, backfilled the terrace, and finished the work with topsoil for planting.
Our team also worked carefully to preserve a Baccharis shrub (B. neglecta) — a native pollinator favorite. An irrigation diagnostic and repair completed the job.
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Austin’s Toxic Algae is Back Again, and Synthetic Fertilizers Aren’t Helping
We’re all used to the routine by now: As summer swelters on, huge green rafts of algae pop up all over Austin’s signature waterways. They grow and multiply until soon, the city makes an announcement: Tests have shown this blue green algae (or cyanobacteria) is toxic, and we all need to steer clear.
It’s happened each year since 2019, when several dog deaths triggered closer investigation.
To its credit, the city has since taken action to not only study the blooms, but cut them down to size. Over five years, $300,000 of taxpayer money will fund a chemical treatment applied to waters from Lake Austin to Red Bud Isle and beyond.
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Its objective: Cut off algal blooms’ supply of phosphorus, and other nutrients the plants thrive on.
“Nutrients plants thrive on” — sound familiar?
It sure does to Maas Verde. Phosphorus is a major ingredient in virtually every synthetic fertilizer available.
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City officials have linked the algae’s recent proliferation in Lady Bird Lake to zebra mussels and climate change. But one way we can take matters into our own hands is right outside our front door.
Native and adapted plants don’t need synthetic fertilizers to live like many non-natives and turfgrasses do. And non-erosive landscapes designed around Central Texas natives like Turks cap (Malvaviscus arboreus), flame acanthus (Anisacanthus quadrifidus), and woodland sedge (Carex blanda) can root deeply to retain soil and control sedimentation.
Plantings of flame acanthus (A. quadrifidus) and woodland sedge (C. blanda). Photo: Maas Verde
In any landscape, plants are the first line of defense against soil erosion and water runoff. In any heavy rain (or artificial drainage event such as residential irrigation), roots in the soil slow down and capture water on its way downhill toward the water table.
Illustration: National Wildlife Federation
For a more drought-resistant landscape that helps keep Austin’s water healthy, contact Maas Verde today.
The 5 Best Reasons To Replace Your Turfgrass with Native Plants
The 5 Best Reasons To Replace Your Turfgrass with Native Plants Chances are, you or someone you know has spent the summer nursing shallow-rooted grasses through the deep Central Texas drought. Every time you turn the spigot on to irrigate your struggling lawn, your water bill swells up that much more. But there’s plenty more […]
