New Construction in Studio City, With Old Retaining Walls Opened Up
New Construction in Studio City that opens up any retaining wall left on the lot, since its footing and drain decide what the new house can rest on.
Where a retaining wall is left standing on a Studio City lot, only its face shows. The depth of its footing, any steel inside it and whether a drain runs behind it stay out of sight until we dig a test pit at its base. If the footing proves shallow or the drain is missing, the soils engineer may treat the wall as unreliable, and the new house is then designed to hold that ground itself, or the wall is rebuilt first.
Test pits at the base of an old wall
A pit dug by hand at the toe of the wall shows how deep the footing goes, how wide it is and what soil it bears on. A scan or a small core through the face tells whether the stem holds reinforcing steel. Weep holes packed with soil, or a dark stain line along the face, suggest water is trapped in the backfill with no way out. We record each finding with photos and measurements, and the soils engineer reads them against the borings for the new house before deciding whether the wall can stay in the design.
How the finding reshapes the foundation
A wall the engineer accepts can stay, with new footings held back far enough that they put no load on it. A wall the engineer rejects changes the order of work. Either a new engineered wall goes in ahead of the house, with its own drain and its own sheets in the permit set, or the house foundation is deepened so it holds the ground on its own and the old wall is left as landscaping. LADBS reviews whichever route the engineer picks. The wall is priced as a separate line once the pit results are in, so the house price never hides it.
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New Construction in Studio City: questions
Begin with a topographic survey that locates every existing wall on the parcel, with its top and bottom heights. Borings and a soils report follow, and the engineer can add a test pit at any wall the new house will sit near. A hillside designation on the parcel may also bring a geology report into the review at LADBS.
An old wall near the drive limits what can come close to it. Loaded trucks and heavy excavators push on the soil a wall is holding, so the engineer may set a line they stay behind. Smaller machines, a pump for concrete and lighter loads then do the work, and each one is listed on the quote as its own cost.
Yes, with the soils report attached. The house is priced trade by trade from the set. Any existing wall the drawings keep is priced from the engineer's assessment of it, and while that assessment is open, the wall work sits beside the house total as a pending item, so the two numbers stay apart.
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