It was time to start the most critical structure designed to keep the dirt (and the building) put. The wall would have two sections. The first section would be a little over 40′ long and 42″ (6 courses) tall
My source for telephone poles would be running thin for the next few weeks. l couldn’t wait or take a chance so I re-thought the plans using railroad ties. Oily, stinky, heavy ties. The wall would be mostly hidden once the new garage was finished so ties would be OK.
Once again, I turned to Facebook Marketplace and found a source for railroad ties. At $8.00 each, they were priced ok. Like the telephone poles, the seller was contracted to dispose of the ties-all 5000 with more to come. There were two issues I had to deal with.
First, the ties weighed almost two hundred pounds each so the trailer I was using was limited to 20 ties. Since I would need 40, that meant two loads. The second issue was the source was an 90 minute drive. But that was still cheaper than buying them at Menards at 20.00 each.
I started by running a line level the whole 60′ distance. I needed to have room on the far side of the building. At this point there was only about 5′ from where the building would set and where the old wall was sitting.
I started by running a string line from end to end then leveling the string to get a grade. I would build to the level.
It’s hard to see in the photos but the trench started out at 36″ below grade. That would work out to 5 courses of ties. The fill had settled in the middle so by the time I got first section of forty feet dug out, I only needed to dig down 18-24″.
Each of the holes for the poles went down 32-36″. And yes, I dug each hole by hand with an hand auger and a clam-shell digger. I also dug the trench by hand as well. I probably could have paid someone to drill the holes and maybe the trench but I was trying to do the work on a budget and the schedule was pretty tight to even get someone out to give me a bid. I could have rented the equipment but I really didn’t feel comfortable that close to the drop-off. Plus the weather would be unpredictable and I wanted to avoid having rental equipment sitting days at a time.
I ‘nailed’ the ties down by using 1/2″ re-bar 18″ long driven down into multiple courses. When I built walls for a living (many years ago), we used to buy bars cut 16″ by the hundreds. I seem to recall the cost was about 50 cents a piece. I checked Menards and they wanted $3.00 each. Believe it or not, I checked Amazon and they sold 18″ bars with a ground point (which would help) for a little over two dollars each. I’m sure it was Chinese steel but I was on a budget. I do recall an interesting conversation with the delivery driver-each box was 4″ square and 18″ long but weighed close to 40 pounds. You can see the box in the picture with the “Heavy” stickers.
—Continued–