I had a contractor pour a concrete wall for me and I am not pleased with the result. Pictures are worth a thousand words so I'll post those. So now I'm looking at making sure my wall lasts. While I'm displeased with the holes, I'm most concerned about them soaking up water and freezing and thawing in winter. We have a severe winter with an average of 200 inches of snow here.

The contractor filled some of the holes, but I wonder if those are just going to pop out shortly.

I'm wondering about two things:

1) skim coating
2) waterproof sealant

Would a skim coat last at least 10 years?
You can see in the last photo that just after a light sprinkle, the wall looks dirty, dark like it soaked up so much water. This has me concerned about how to protect it.

 

It looks fine to me, the water will not pool so freezing will not be a problem.

Think of all the vertical basement foundations, building walls, concrete structures that are sticking out of the ground exposed to weather, they do not self destruct!

 

I agree that the air bubbles/pockets should not harm the wall. Since it's a retaining wall I would be more concerned about how it's anchored to prevent it from leaning out over the years. Judging from the siding on the houses it looks like that's why the previous wall was replaced. If you want you can fill them with mortar or skim coat the entire face for a more uniform appearance.

 

I appreciate your confidence about the vertical surface. In fact, that was my mother's first opinion. But, my reservations are because of our severe climate. From October to May, it will be incased in a "snow-berg" that will freeze and thaw around it. Here are some pictures of the old wall, so while I believe we improved the overall design (rebar into the sidewalk), it did experience in it's life span it's fair share of weathering. I've included a picture of the old wall just starting to get encased in a snow-berg and then a couple pictures of how high the snow-bergs get. The one by the garage is even after I had one dump truck load taken away in January!

The design of the two house roofs on either side of the wall will shoot water and snow onto the wall. The snow sorta sits on my roof more, but the neighbor's roof is metal and the snow just slides off and fills the entire yard.



The photo uploader isn't working today it appears, so here are the links incase the embedded pictures fail.
http://www.sidneybutler.com/diyphotos/pic11.jpeg

http://www.sidneybutler.com/diyphotos/pic12.jpeg

http://www.sidneybutler.com/diyphotos/pic13.jpeg

http://www.sidneybutler.com/diyphotos/pic14.jpeg

 

The wall is now anchored into the sidewalk with rebar. That I hope will prevent the tipping.

Which do you think it more likely to last?:

1) filling the holes flush, then sealing
2) skim coating, then sealing

 

Personally I would be more concerned with a shim coat failing before the wall itself failed,

If it's packed with snow and water that would easily get into and behind the weak bond of the skim coat and freezing would pop off.

Personally I still do not think I would have any concern with that wall as is!