Mud washing out of retaining wall when it rains
Heavy rain washes mud out through gaps and causes upper sections of the wall to cave in and fill with rocks. This active structural failure creates ongoing soil erosion that can lead to further collapse and worsen future property damage.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
- 1adding a pipe with drainage outlets and geogrid
- 2asking online forums whether the installation specs meet requirements
- 3Tearing down the wall completely to do a proper demo and rebuild
- 4Planning to spray stucco over the surface
- 5trying to find out construction details like footers or rebar
- 6building another retaining wall
- 7Switching from wood railroad ties to concrete blocks
- 8Installing proper drainage behind the new wall
- 9reducing and ultimately stopping watering on a timer
- 10rebuilding a dam to help hold the water in the garden longer
- 11trying to restore flow to a clogged French drain with a drain-router
- 12digging out behind the wall to install a modified new one
- 13leaving it to worsen slightly each year
- 14building a small stone wall 6 to 8 inches high packed with sand and gravel pressed up against the base
In their words
Unedited, most upvoted first, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Could this harm my property??”source ↗
“How or what to use to fill the large voids, planned on finishing it with spraying stucco, but obviously need to fill these voids first.”source ↗
“100’ long. Two tiered wall. Looks like only 2.5” compacted. Is this going to be a problem?”source ↗
“Can this be repaired??”source ↗
“Would anyone tackle this railroad tie collapsing retaining wall on their own?”source ↗
“That wall looks pretty cooked, those ties are rotting out from the inside.”source ↗
“Unfortunately a previous owner of our home put up multiple camphor trees in a small retaining space. We just had all three trees removed but there was damage to the retaining walls. We arent looking to completely redo them in the near future.”source ↗
“What are some DIY recommendations way to repair these to some degree?”source ↗
“Also the area on the far right is so bad because the previous owner had some kind of vine/plant growing through and on the wall, killed all that and removed the vine and this is what it left behind.”source ↗
“That's wall has to go, sooner or later. Might as well get it done right instead of wasting money on temporary patch.”source ↗
“When it rains all of the mud comes out the circled area to the left. The circled area on the upper right caved in and filled with rocks. Will the cause more problems in the future?”source ↗
“I’m 99% sure there’s no rebar. Just what you see. Idk what grout or whatever they used.”source ↗
“2 years into doing the land scaping I noticed the wall is actually leaning out towards the road, or low level. We also noticed water was leaking through cracks in the grout out towards the sidewalk.”source ↗
“Second, is my watering causing damage to the wall? My neighbor saw white mineral staining on the wall and blamed me saying I am damaging the wall.”source ↗
“as I was digging out the bed, I realized that the base of the rocks from the retaining wall is not buried and the bottom of the large rocks is in fact the bottom of the wall.”source ↗
“Indeed, will contact local supplier. That’s my biggest concern what actually to use to fill the large voids.”source ↗
“I’m wondering if I’m going to have to replace it entirely or if this can be fixed”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
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- 4How to fix yard erosion without a major landscaping overhaul