Replacing leaning perimeter wall

[Dean1953]

I had mentioned here around 2 years ago that one side of my perimeter wall was leaning and would eventually have to be torn down and replaced. The caretaker at our house believes that the time is soon. When I was there the summer of 2013, I measured the wall at 81 feet long. The builder of the wall, and my house, gave me an estimate of 90,000 baht total. I explained to him that the foundation would have to go deeper and water would have to be drained away from the wall. My wife said the caretaker asked around and got a bid of 108,000 baht. The house is in the Bosang area. If anyone has any recommendation of a competent, knowledgable builder, I would appreciate it. Otherwise, I think that I'll be taking a month off from work and fly over from the U.S. To oversee the work and make sure that they go deep enough and don't cut any corners which won't be noticeable until the wall falls over for the second time.

[Gentlemc]

Your land was rice field before? or infill too high?

[Dean1953]

Yes to both. It was a rice field up to 11 years ago, when I had it filled in and a house built 6 months later. The affected wall is the only side that borders land that hasn't been filled in and the dirt on my side goes up about a third of the wall. Maybe, I also need some sort of supports that will equalize the pressure of the dirt pushing against the wall, particularly during rainy season?

[DaamNaam]

We are having a similar problem and were quoted something similar. Then we had a rethink and got the original house engineer out for a look and he said as both sides were starting to lean and nobody currently lives there we should fill it up with dirt. That makes sense to me. Maybe your place is similar.

[trainman34014]

OP; if you are prepared to spend the money and fly over and oversee the work etc then i would suggest you come over anyway and punt the job around a few more builders.

I don't know what nationality your Caretaker is but if they are Thai there is a very good chance that they will be taking a slice of any price for themselves and will not be too fussed about the type of job you get.

There are folks on here that can probably give you names and numbers of 'decent' builders that you can contact once you are here. Just my bucks worth.

[Greenside]

If you have the space, maybe move the wall in away from your boundary and buttress it to add strength. As far as how to solve the problem goes, you'll do better posting this in the DIY/Housing forum or possibly on one that has cool and thai and house in the url.

[Dante99]

The installed walls were probably of the standard type built to keep eyes and dogs out, not "retaining walls", the type designed to take a lateral load of soil pressing on one side, the latter being unusual here and requiring some engineering based on several variables.

[Dean1953]

I can only afford to take a month off, probably from the middle of April to the middle of May, so I can make it back for my step daughter's high school graduation. I got an estimate from the original builder the summer of 2013 but he couldn't start it for 2-3 months. With only a month, if I wait until I get to Chiang Mai, whomever I hire will have to start immediately. I guess that I can hire someone to tear the old wall down soon. I don't think that there is much expertise needed for that.

[eyecatcher]

I tend to agree that your priority should be to remove the danger.

If its likely to collapse you dont want to be in a position where it had injured someone.

So get someone to knock down those sections at risk and then spend some time obtaining quotes for a rebuild.

Quite happy for you to pm me and I will give it a coat of looking at with you.

[Gentlemc]

Sorry If my English is not well. But I will try to explain for problems.

1. Footing may be sit in the new infilled , not the old soil . That's mean footing too short....You should know how deep of footing.

2. Your wall about 81 Feet. = 24.3 M. long , you should have buttresses to hold the wall . If not , wall will be sway out by soil pressure and water in rainy season. Another problem is , if footing too short when some part of wall settle down , it will pull nearly part down too and will be crack.

3. I don't know how high of infill and water level if your plot, but just recommend ,using small pile /hexagon and hollow pile +buttress is the best way and strongest ...It 's more expansive , but not headache anymore.

[onthedarkside]

Troll post removed.

[Dean1953]

Thanks for your possible solutions to my problem, Gentlemc. One important detail that I haven't mentioned is that I'm not on great terms with the neighbor that owns the land that the wall is leaning over. Not on bad terms but not good. When the wall first started leaning, I asked my wife to talk to him about putting supports on his land, and I would compensate him for it. Wife refused to do it. I did try to divert water from the wall but the neighbor didn't want it deposited at the front of our properties. So, I doubt that any solution that extends to his land is possible. I'll try to explain the buttress method (or have a Thai do it for me). I don't think that there is any way of having someone lined up to start the day after arriving back but if I can get them to do 2 weeks of work, that I can observe, I have 2 Thai friends that can take turns watching them as they finish.

[Gentlemc]

http://www.rsc5.com/wall.html Please see this link . It's as example of buttress ..In Thai technical words call " Stay" it 's work as anchor to hold tent , could design footing to be pile footing or mat footing , depending on soil quality and how high of infill.In my understanding is you want to ask for allowance from neighbor to use their space along the boundary line to do the support. It's difficult to deal.

1. This method can do on your property.

2. After the wall finished ,we have choices to control water are

2.1. Adjust the land and make gulley as rain water trap along the wall ,control slope run to it , and go to rain water storage tank or run to somewhere which it's the best outlet location.

2.2. Adjust the land and make rain drainage by RC. Pipe or PVC, or Asbestos pipe with small manholes . Water will run to manhole ,pipe and then go to tank or somewhere which you need as the outlet location.

Note** Some people want to collect rain water into storage tank and can pump up for garden. And buttress or in Stay in Thai words, you can print picture to the builders. They will say "AH! i see"

[NeverSure]

What you describe sounds like a retaining wall. HERE are google images for some.

Additionally you need drainage at the bottom like THIS.

Note that in most cases the footing goes back much farther into the retained dirt so that the weight of the dirt helps hold the wall.

This is an engineering issue. I would want a soils engineer to make the recommendations to the structural engineer.

[Gentlemc]

As shown in my example link is prefabrication wall and retaining wall. But I would like to show kind of buttresses as shown in pic 2 & 4., I don't want to suggest to spend big money for retaining wall.For rain drainage system can do as I explained is regularly method to build house in Thailand and it's not a big deal.

In the Mr.NeverSure's link about rain drainage is Western style .It's good way as filter to keep water more clean and good to collect water into storage tank.

Normally ,NeverSure said right about finding structure engineer to visit the site and check for surrounding , soil , infill level ,suggest you for kind of footing and drainage, even construction joints if need it in case of wall is too long .In my opinion is not necessary to do soil test.

[maderaroja]

Contact Mr. Ben Chapman at Leaf Innovation Co., Ltd. Have him build you a retaining wall. He built one for me and I am very happy with his work and the resulting wall. He is English and speaks Thai. He can control the workers and the work. If you would like photos of my retaining wall, you may PM me.

Edited February 14, 2015 by onthedarkside
email removed as per forum rules