May need advice: digging trench for retaining wall. I'm out of ideas other than manual labor

Took you all's advice. Craigslist to the rescue! Paid some guys to help me dig this 8" wide x 24" deep (to frost line) x 65' long (length of fence) for retaining wall foundation and to remove the old fence post concrete foundation. "no problem they said... 8-10 hours". Well, 5 days later....complete! 3 guys, electric jackhammer, lots of swear words...and done! They never seen such huge fence post footing before (16"x16" and 24" deep). The compacted hard clay could not be done this year with digging bar alone so electric jackhammer did most of the work.
This would of taken me til the end of January to do this solo, with a dislocated shoulder and broken leg.
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fergenheimer said:
I just went from rested to tired looking at all your work! Good job!
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This was the hard part :) Now, I gotta throw in drainage gravel, aligned retaining wall blocks, add in French drain, fill in gravel behind the retaining wall, install those SDS1 fence post bases.... and THEN build a fence like this:
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this is what has been keeping me busy.
All done by hand shoveling, hand moving of blocks.
65'. 3 rows completed. 1st row took me 2 days to set as you have to have each single block level forward/backward and left/right and then...co-planer to the next block.
Also, had to level the french drain. At 65', the slope is between 1/4" - 1/2" per 10'. That took 3-4 hours alone. Then thought I best have some branches just incase I ever get around to house gutter system or general draininage.
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20% more to go for retaining wall, gravel, and dirt! And then plantation shutter 6' fence build project. Mind you... all done with no machinery. All by my hands & back.
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johnfitz said:
A similar/smaller/easier wall I replaced last year...

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did you use geogrid?
I opted not to. There is no way I was going to dig up my entire back yard to laydown the necessary layers & depth of geogrid.
At least I did add drainage gravel behind the blocks: 4" up top to 12" down low with a french drain system.
Hydrostatic pressure against any masonry retaining wall is the #1 killer.
The aesthetics looks night and day between your timber & masonry pix.
 
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Hi @Holbs

We did not use geogrid, had to google to see what it is :)

Used 3 to 4" of base gravel under the blocks and I forget how many (several) yards of gravel behind the wall 4 to 6" for drainage.

Although they look similar to yours, our blocks are much smaller/lighter and our wall is more of a curb compared to yours... the biggest difference is we didn't have anything but rotten timber to remove to dig the trench... a fraction of the work you're into!
 
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Looks good. Will be interested in how it holds in a decade. Without geogrid or some type of support that spreads the load, they tend to lean.


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