Retaining walls can be the answer if you are blessed (or cursed) to a contoured lot. In basic you do not need a organizing permit for a retaining wall unless you have either a heritage overlay or an Environmental Significance Overlay with a schedule of tree manage. If you do not have sufficient drainage for your retaining wall the make-up of water behind the wall increases the load on the wall beyond the level that it was developed for.

It is important to have a concrete footer beneath grade to carry the weight and assure results of the retaining wall. I have attempted to illustrate a counterfort retaining wall in Figure 3. The footer, retaining wall and support wall have to be tied to 1 an additional with reinforcing steel. A uncomplicated example of a cantilever retaining wall is a typical basement wall of a residence. These of us who … Read the rest