Description of retaining wall products from Allan Block that offers different block styles, sizes, colors and more.Retaining Wall Guardrails, Requirements for guardrailings along retaining walls; photos, codes & hazards. Inspect. APedia tolerates no conflicts of interest. We have no relationship with advertisers, products, or services discussed at this website. Retaining wall guardrail requirements: This article describes the requirement for guard railings along the top of many retaining walls. We cite model building codes, individual U. S. state building codes, and we give photo examples of good, bad, and ugly or downright dangerous guard railings, or walls that should have had a guard railing. This article series describes types of privacy walls, retaining walls and retaining wall guard railing requirements, guard railing construction and building codes, and critical safe- construction details for retaining wall guardrails. . We include definitions of important retaining wall terms such as wall surcharge, and we provide diagnostic descriptions & photographs of types of damage to retaining walls & privacy walls.Green links show where you are.Copyright 2. 01. 7 Inspect. ![]() Discount Blocks for Retaining Walls. Includes Cost comparison per block for Allan Block vs. Versa-Lok vs. CornerStone. Castle Wall Blocks 8" or 12" Landscaping Timbers/Railroad Ties Crab Orchard Stacked Stone Countryside Cobble Pavers Chisel Wall Erosion Control Retaining Walls. Free How To Do It Yourself Retaining Wall Plans-Ideas-Instructions. Retaining walls can add beauty as well as functionality to any landscaping or garden project. Apedia. com, All Rights Reserved. Retaining Wall Railing Designs & Guard Railing Code Requirements. Our photo at left illustrates a tall cantilevered- design reinforced concrete retaining wall built of reinforced concrete with a suitable guard railing along the wall top (a parking lot). Details about guard railing designs, codes & requirements for use at retaining walls are here at RETAINING WALL GUARDRAIL CODES. As detailed in Best Practices Guide to Residential Construction: The International Residential Code (IRC) requires a minimum 3. For child safety, the balusters or other decorative infill must be spaced less than 4 inches apart (a 4- inch- diameter ball should not pass between the balusters). The railing in our photo meets this requirement. Some communities allow horizontal steel cables as guard railings at the top of retaining walls, as we discuss below. The top rail for a guardrail can be a 2x. Use the longest pieces you can find—a continuous railing is best. However for a hand railing on stairs, both flat and vertical 2x lumber are unsafe and violate good stair railing design because they cannot be grasped during a fall. Examples of Inadequate Retaining Wall Guardrails. At above left we illustrate a wooden retaining wall that appears to have been constructed from recycled railroad ties and without anchoring extensions behind the wall. You will also note the open railings that are not child- safe. At left we illustrate more versions of inadequate or unsafe guardrailings, first at a retaining wall and second in a shopping center, but using a cable design that some communities approve for use along the top of retaining walls as well. This retaining wall guard rail is a child hazard because of its large openings and horizontal cross members, one of which had fallen away at the time of our inspection. This retaining wall also has a surcharge from vehicles that park nosed right up to about 1. But the stones were so massive and so well drained that in our OPINION the surcharge from vehicles, snow, and frost, would not threaten this wall structure. Our guardrail photos (below) show an attractive railing with horizontal cables intended to permit a nice view of the Brooklyn NY skyline. We also demonstrate how easily the cables can be separated as well as how attractive this guard railing is to children. In our OPINION this is an unsafe railing design. Question: can seating serve as a protective safety railing at decks, porches, or outdoors near a high retaining wall? Subject: 3. 0" railing. If there is a seat wall and a planter between an upper level terrace and a retaining wall with a height greater than 3. Please see attached sketch. Reply: OPINION about using seating as a safety barrier on decks, porches, or outdoor surfaces near retaining walls. I have certainly seen a number of high decks (not quite your case) that had continuous seating at the perimeter and no other railings. I expect that ultimately the building code compliance inspector will decide the issue locally. A concern might be that even though the seating can prevent someone from stumbling and falling off of the raised area, it would not stop a child from climbing right over - unless there were seat backs were high enough and made of vertical balusters rather than the typical horizontal materials. Taking a look at your sketch (above left), as drawn, the same concept seems to apply: you may have protection against an adult trip and fall over the retaining wall provided by some space (say six feet) between the "seat wall" and the "planter wall" (a retaining wall). But this design does not provide child safety protection nor protection for someone walking in or working in that inner space (having stepped over the seat wall). If this area is residential occupied outdoor space, I would be surprised if a building code inspection would accept the design you show: the "seat wall" is just 1. That might be an acceptable alternative. Our photo (above left) of a high retaining wall without a guard railing (left) illustrates an approach using dense shrubbery as a safety barrier at a property in New York State. That a lot of water is penetrating this retaining wall is obvious in both photographs. Typical building codes including local code interpretations that address the question of need for safety railings near high retaining walls give some latitude to the local building inspector. Examples: "(B) Safety Railings. Safety railings may be required for any retaining wall two and one- half (2. The decision to require safety railing shall be based on specific site conditions, potential pedestrian and public access to the retaining wall, and applicable building codes." - City of Bella Vista, AR subdivision code. Retaining walls more than 1. Cal- OSHA regulations, Title 8, Section 1. Department's Highway Design Manual Section 2. California DOT DHR - SAFETY ALERT MEMO 0. For outdoor double- retaining walls outdoors, the lower retaining wall is 4. Glen Cove, New York. Also see CODES for STAIRS & RAILINGS where we provide additional detail on railing requirements for stairs, landings, balconies, etc. Question: Do I need a standard guard railing atop a ten- foot high retaining wall and do I need a hand railing along stairs that will access the wall top? I have a landscape retaining wall, not connected to a building (an accessory structure U), that forms a level area of about 2. The retaining wall is 1.By Code, does it have to have a guard at the top with 4" sub- rail spacing? Watch Dogs Keygen Cd Key Generator . And do the stairs leading to it have to have a handrail? I'm under the impression that guards are only specified for buildings and associated structures and we can do a guard rail that doesn't conform to the 4" spacing (or even not have one)? Am I reading this correctly? M. J., Monterey CA. Reply: We recommend that a publicly- accessed ten foot high retaining wall and stairs accessing its top should have standard guard railings. The 1. 99. 7 Uniform Building Code (UBC). UBC §1. 06. 2, item 5, a model accepted by many communities in the U. S. states: “A building permit shall not be required for … retaining walls that are not over 4 feet in height measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, unless supporting a surcharge …”Definition of Exposed Retaining Wall Height Affects Building Permit Requirements. Why do retaining wall definitions and terms matter in discussing retaining wall building permits and heights? Well what's the actual height of the retaining wall. The exposed height of a retaining wall is the height of the vertical grade difference between the upper ground level and the lower ground level that are to be separated by the retaining wall. And of course since most lots are not dead level, you'll use the highest vertical grade difference to describe your retaining wall. Folsom explains that including the 1. UBC code requirement for a permit) actually has just three feet of exposed retaining wall height. You'll need to adjust this analysis if your retaining wall footing is buried still deeper). The result is that the [Folsom CA] Planning, Inspections and Permitting Department interprets UBC §1.
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