This retaining wall is cinder blocks mortared together. A 10 section fell this winter. There's no drainage or gravel and I don't think there's a proper foundation.

The walls and house are 50+ years old. The house is approx 2K sq ft 2 story with 1K sq ft basement.

The retaining wall adjacent to the one that partially fell is 4' everywhere but looks plumb and sound, but if I dump dirt as a slope behind the wall that fell, I'll dump dirt behind both walls for support. The one that partially fell has been unplumb about 6" for years I'm guessing, so whatever didn't fall is leaning.

The image shows plus or minus 2' estiamted distances that the walls are from the building.

Does anyone know if it's not okay for the sake of the house foundation etc to just get dirt dumped behind the retaining wall that partially fell rather than replacing the whole wall or even re building the collapsed part with new block and mortor and leaving it 6" leaning without excavating and adding gravel and drainage? Again, it's only 4 feet max and I would compact the dirt and have it go up to 15' out from the broken wall.
Also, I was going to put a fence in front of the wall that fell (for safety reasons since it was a 4' ledge), so if I fill it as a dirt slope, would it still require a safety fence? The non-broken plumb wall has a chainlink already.

 

Your situation is living proof why mortared concrete blocks don't make very good retaining walls. To avoid a similar (or worse) collapse in the future, it would make sense to repair the wall, correctly, now. That means installing a footing, a plumb wall and proper drainage (preferably, with weep holes) behind it.

 

gravel will hold better than dirt, and mix dirt in with it to plant grass/specific plants that root to help keep the slope in place.


does anyone happen to know the code for what angle of a slope requires a fence and what doesn't? For instance, a 4' ledge would of course need a fence. If it's a slope that ends 4' from a 4' peak, that would be 45 degrees. 8' out from the 4' peak would be half of 45, and 12' out is a third of 45 degrees. 12' out good enough to not need a fence?

 

Last time I checked (long ago) there was no fencing requirement for sloped earth. I suppose since you wouldn't fall off of something like a porch or deck, you'd just trip and roll down the hill.

 

we've got to do 1 next week & we'll use gabions,,, compacted granular base + 2' high baskets,,, no prof stamp'd dwngs, no permit, quik $$$, low $$$ to owner the wall will be 3'h x 20' long,,, IF the surveyor shoots the line by then