How The Dwyer Company Stabilized a Bowing Backyard Retaining Wall in Villa Hills, Kentucky
- Project Type: Residential
- Project Services: Foundation Repair
The Problem
A cast-in-place concrete retaining wall in a Villa Hills backyard had started to bow. Bowing means the pressure behind a wall has outrun what it was built to resist, and the shape of the wall is the first place that shows up.
Water building behind the wall was the likely driver. Saturated soil weighs more and pushes harder than dry soil, so a drainage problem behind a wall turns into a structural problem in front of it. The deflection grows as long as that pressure keeps building, which put holding the wall ahead of everything else.
Our Solution
The Dwyer Company installed six soil anchors through the existing wall. Soil anchors are steel tendons drilled deep into the ground behind a wall and tensioned against it, so the wall is held by stable soil well past the material pressing on it. Each anchor was designed to support 20 to 30 kips, or 20,000 to 30,000 pounds, and extended between 20 and 30 feet back into the slope.
The backyard set the working conditions. Access was tight, so the crew brought equipment sized to fit and reached each anchor location from the room the yard allowed.
The Results
- Six soil anchors now hold the wall against the pressure that started the bowing.
- Each anchor carries a design capacity of 20 to 30 kips.
- Anchor lengths run 20 to 30 feet, reaching stable ground well behind the wall.
- The existing wall was stabilized where it stands, so no section of it had to be rebuilt.
The Challenge We Worked Through
Why This Matters
A backyard retaining wall holds back a slope that would otherwise be sitting in the yard. Water collects behind that wall over the years, pressure climbs, and the wall bows outward under the load. A bowed wall carries less than a straight one, so the movement compounds the problem it came from. Soil anchors answer that by tying the wall back into stable ground beyond the pressure, which stabilizes the wall in place and leaves the slope behind it where it is. For a homeowner, the repair happens at the wall and the yard stays a yard.
- Location: Villa Hills, Kentucky
- Completed: January 31, 2025