I have two retaining walls in my yard that are leaning over that I am going to try to stand up again. I know it's not the best option, but my cash flow is real tight at the moment. My plan is to properly back the walls with stone and some drainage pipe to alleviate the cause of the problem. My question is what type of fabric can I use to keep the soil from mixing with my stone? I asked the guy at a supply yard and he was suggesting regular landscape fabric that's used as weed block. Is that ok or do I need something a bit different?

I hope someone can help me here or give me some advice.... Here's my story: We bought this house about 2 years ago in Southern MD (low sea level, high clay and water table). When we bought it the basement did not leak. The new drywall should have been a sign but thats another story. Anyway, it wasn't until the first big rainstorm that we had, did I discover a 1/4 inch of water in the corner of the house. The particular corner was the corner of the house that was in the direct path of the direction of "flow" or downward slope of the land. After a few quotes from various contractors (one of them being Atlantic waterproofing, again another story) we decided to try to tackle the problem ourselves. I did a bunch of research before we started work. So here is a list of things that we did to attempt to rectify the problem: 1. dug up the old perimeter (footer) drainage system. It was old and crusty. 2. replaced it with 6" drainage PVC (white, stiff, holes drilled on bottom half of circumference) along with 4" of pea gravel on the bottom. Pipe was placed at footer level. followed by 8-10" of pea gravel on top using landscaping cloth on top and bottom of pea gravel and a sock over the pipe. Pipe drains to an existing drainage pipe away from house and with slope of land. 3. backfilled with same dirt that was dug out 4. diverted gutter drainage away from house 5. sloped back fill at least 1' for every 6' 6. installed a sump pump in central location in house A few specs about the house: -30'X50' raised rancher - back left corner basement is 6' below grade opposing corner is at grade (if that makes sense) - basement/house foundation is monolithic pour with CMU block walls - Leakage occurs at bottom of basement walls and usually only with heavy rains AFter major foundation drainage replacement it seemed to have fixed the problem. However a few weeks/months later same problem. considerable less water, but any water is unacceptable. Obviously I can't dig a trench drain on the interior because of the mono slab. I've seen a few companies that want to come out and give estimates of their fabulous products for $2500-5000 a pop. Im looking for something I can do myself. Can anyone help? I can send pics or images if anyone would like...please advise if you can!!