New Construction in Glendale, Starting With the Wall That Holds the Cut
New houses in Glendale set into a slope and built in order: slot cuts, the retaining wall and its drain, tested backfill, then the house foundation.
When a new Glendale house is set into a slope, the first structure built is the retaining wall that holds the cut, and the house waits for it. A tall excavation cannot be left standing open, so the cut is made in alternating slots, each one filled with footing and wall before the next is dug. The drain behind the wall, its outlet and the waterproofing go in before backfill, and only then does the house foundation start.
Slot cuts under the soils engineer's eye
The soils engineer sets the slot width and the order, A slots first, then B, then C, from how well the exposed soil stands. Each slot is dug, checked by the engineer for the material at its base, and poured before its neighbors are opened, so the slope is never unsupported along its full length. Where the exposed face ravels or seeps, the engineer can narrow the slots or call for shoring. Open slot faces are covered with plastic so rain cannot soften them overnight.
Backfill, outlets and the first house footing
Behind the finished wall, a drain board over the waterproofing feeds a perforated pipe in gravel at the footing, and that pipe has to reach an approved outlet by gravity or a sump. Backfill goes in thin lifts, each compacted and tested, because loose fill behind a wall settles and loads it unevenly. If the wall doubles as the lower wall of the house, it is designed for both jobs and its top is tied to the floor framing. Glendale's inspector signs off the wall steel before each pour and the drain before it is buried.
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New Construction in Glendale: questions
For a Glendale house cut into a slope, the topographic survey has to cover the ground above the cut as well as the pad, since that is the soil the wall will hold. The geotechnical report gives the wall's design pressures and the temporary cut angles, and on steep ground a geology review checks the bedding of any rock. A boundary survey fixes where the wall may sit.
Soldier piles and caissons need a drill rig, and the rig's size follows the access. A full-size rig that can climb to the work puts holes in quickly. Where the work sits behind a side yard or up a grade too steep for it, a compact rig is walked in or lifted over, drills more slowly and may need a pad built to stand on, so rig hours climb.
Yes, though a wall drawn by the architect is only an outline until the engineer details it. Footing width, steel and drain all grow with wall height, so we price walls from the engineer's wall schedule, height band by height band. If that schedule is not finished, the walls are carried as an allowance at the heights drawn.
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