I'm building a retaining wall in Tucson, AZ, it is about 6' tall and
70' long. I had a structural engineer do all of the design (but he is almost impossible to get a hold of for these kinds of questions). I've been told that I should waterproof the side which will be backfilled otherwise the wall will not last long and the other side will show ugly white stains right away. I bought some Xypex at the local Home Depot and plan to use that.I was told that I only need to coat the area which is above the finished grade on the low side of the wall (the side that isn't being filled). Does that sound right?
The engineer called for 3" PVC every 8', at 8" above finished grade.
I read somewhere in this newsgroup that the wall needs to let the water through or you'll have so much presure that the wall will burst. So do I really want to waterproof this thing... Isn't that going to cause extra presure if I try and hold back the moisture instead of let it through?
p.s.-This soil is typical for Tucson, AZ, hard as rock and not much moisture anyway.