The Leaning Wall

I came home from a quick trip to the store one night recently and noticed something odd about the retaining wall in my front yard. It was leaning. It had also broken away from the side. Not a good thing to say the least.

I panicked a bit. I was afraid that the whole damn thing might collapse at any minute. I know that’s a little over the top. Who knows how long its been like that. But I was concerned. You can get a sense of it from the pictures below.

I’m sure this happened due to all the bad weather we’ve had this year (I would say that the vast of majority of days have been lousy so far this year but that’s for another post).

I made some calls to see if I could get someone to come out and take a look at it. One of the people I talked to said lots of people were calling about similar problems and the weather was the reason. Not only the bad winter but all the rain the DC region has had over the past few weeks.

The first guy showed up this morning. He said he didn’t think it was going to collapse (a relief to me). He said if it was his he would patch it and see how long the patch would hold as opposed to rebuilding the wall. He couldn’t promise how long the patch would last. It could crack in six months or maybe several years. The thing was to watch and see what happens over time. He said he would give me estimates for patching the all and building a new one.

I have someone else coming out on Friday.

The wrinkle in all of this is that I share the front yard with my neighbor and thus I share the wall with them too. I wrote them a note (I’ve been a bad neighbor they’ve lived there for over a year and I’ve never introduced myself but then again neither have they) saying what was going on. Adding we should try and talk about this. The thing is it makes no sense to repair my side of the wall if the other side (which is on their property) isn’t fixed as well.