Retaining wall with strip foundation and cascading formwork blocks

Hello Tim

So far your plan is coherent and well thought out.
Don’t skimp on the reinforcement. Apply two 8 mm steel bars horizontally on the formwork blocks. And vertically as much as possible. You have to measure very precisely. The formwork blocks do not have particularly large openings, especially considering that you are setting them with an offset.
Consider whether you want to form the foundation in one go and then order ready-mixed concrete. It’s not much more expensive and if you also factor in your and possibly the helpers’ time, it can even be cheaper. And you have a foundation made in one piece. Which is always better than such patchwork.

Steven

Great, thank you very much for your continued suggestions!

One more question; for 1 meter height, which concrete blocks would you use, 17.5 cm (I'm currently leaning towards this, is that sufficient?), 24 cm or even thicker, 30 cm wall thickness?

Hello Tim

underground basically 30s. This gives you the necessary reserve.
You won't get them at Bauhaus, but your building materials supplier can deliver them to you.

Steven

We dug out the foundation and set up the formwork, got waste mats from the steel dealer, 5 pieces measuring 600x30cm "they were a tenner for the coffee cup," and placed them in the foundation. The next day, we had 2.5m3 of earth-moist dry concrete delivered with a 3-4 hour delay and even set the first row of exposed concrete blocks directly into the dry concrete. Then we hammered in 10mm thick rods into the foundation.

This way, the two of us made a 10x1 meter wall, including filling, in 5 hours.

If it’s more than 10-20 meters, I would pour the foundation in one go and use regular concrete since it flows better over long distances.

Hello everyone,
since it has cooled down a bit at the moment, I will take some time off in the next few days and start the project.
Thank you for your valuable tips!

I still have one question, as I am actually considering ordering ready-mix concrete at least for the strip foundation in order to create it in one go. I will then fill the shuttering blocks afterwards "quite comfortably" with self-made concrete.
My foundation runs a little over 50 meters along 2 sides of my property. The property is still completely undeveloped so far, the ground is currently rock hard due to the dryness, but that can change again. How do I get the ready-mix concrete from the street (along the front side of the property) to the other two sides? Would a concrete mixer be able to drive onto the property, what do you think?

Or should I take care of another solution? Using a wheelbarrow is of course a lot of work...
But an extra pump would of course drive the costs for my garden wall up enormously

Hello Tim

The concrete mixer will certainly drive onto your property. If no obstacles make this impossible. The ground is currently dry and therefore sinking is unlikely. But calculate in advance how much concrete you need. For 2-3 m³ ready-mixed concrete will not be worth it. From 5 m³ despite minimum quantity it will be worth it.

Steven