A 30 year old concrete retaining wall is showing signs of age:
What can be done to:
- halt the deformation of the blocks & wall?
- restore the wall to a state closer to 'new'?
Retaining Wall Restoration
retaining-wall
Related Solutions
I've recently purchased used railroad ties from home depot for my own landscaping needs. They were the cheapest by volume that I could find about, $15 for an 8"x10"x8' (nominal), and if you want something that's going to match the worn look of an existing railroad tie retaining wall, well that's as good as it gets.
Concrete blocks will be more expensive and probably will stand out. If you're not going to cement and rebar them in, I also find blocks harder to get set in so they look professional.
I built a retaining wall in a situation very similar to what you described. In my case the wall drops approximately 12" over 40 feet. It has 3 courses of 6" Keystone wall blocks. The first course is mostly buried and the wall is about 12" high over most of it's length. I also put about 4" - 5" inches of drain rock behind it with a landscape fabric barrier.
This was 15 years ago and it seems to be holding up just fine. I would hope that the 4" blocks you want to use will be ok. However, I've worked with that size some doing garden walls and they are definitely less stable than the bigger blocks.
One other consideration here is aesthetics. Make sure looking at a retaining wall that isn't level doesn't bug you! Sometimes I look at mine and wish I had installed it level and stepped it down instead.
In the area where I live we have an assortment of gravity block retaining walls and the ones that follow the slope usually don't look as good in my opinion.
Here is a photo for reference:
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Best Answer
Not age so much as settling in the footing. You'd see the same thing in a new wall in similar circumstances.
You have two options:
Replace the entire wall section, say 15 feet out from the corner both ways, including the footing, to try and be sure that it won't move further. You'll examine the soil under the current footing and possibly improve it, making sure to compact thoroughly. This is obviously a substantial job and would take several days.
Remove and repair just the broken block, hoping that all settling that will occur has occurred, and that the footings are in their final resting place, so to speak. A good mason or bricklayer can do that job in a few hours. A mortar hack like me would take the wall apart such that it's a stair-step all the way up (to avoid tuck-pointing) and might take a day.