RETAINING WALL
First Claim
1. A modular retaining wall of preselected height and mass per unit length for retaining loose material of equal or lesser height, comprisingconcrete backer blocks placed against the loose material to be retained and stacked into a continuous rear wall portion of the preselected height and a first mass per unit length;
- concrete facing blocks exposed on a front face of the retaining wall and stacked into a continuous front wall portion of the preselected height and a second mass per unit length;
connectors extending between the facing and backer blocks for connecting each concrete facing block with at least one concrete backer block in a back to back arrangement and maintaining the front and rear wall portions in a spaced apart position in which the front and rear wall portions define an intermediate space; and
a fill of loose filler material at least partially filling the intermediate space, a sum of the first and second mass being less than the total mass and the fill having a third mass per unit length constituting at least the remainder of the preselected total mass per unit length;
wherein the facing blocks, the intermediate space and the loose filler material are separated by the backer blocks from the material to be retained.
1 Assignment
0 Petitions
Accused Products
Abstract
Disclosed is an economical and effective way of producing a modular retaining wall for a material to be retained, using only blocks which in and of themselves are of insufficient thickness to function as retaining wall blocks. The modular wall includes backer blocks and facing blocks which are connected by separate connectors in a back to back, spaced apart arrangement, thereby forming a hollow retaining wall. The hollow wall is filled with loose filler material to increase the mass and retaining capacity of the wall. None of the wall components is embedded in the material to be retained. Further disclosed are wall components and a wall kit for a modular retaining wall. A double sided decorative wall is also disclosed. The modular wall system allows for the construction of retaining walls and freestanding, double sided, decorative walls forming both straight and curved walls.
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Citations
25 Claims
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1. A modular retaining wall of preselected height and mass per unit length for retaining loose material of equal or lesser height, comprising
concrete backer blocks placed against the loose material to be retained and stacked into a continuous rear wall portion of the preselected height and a first mass per unit length; -
concrete facing blocks exposed on a front face of the retaining wall and stacked into a continuous front wall portion of the preselected height and a second mass per unit length; connectors extending between the facing and backer blocks for connecting each concrete facing block with at least one concrete backer block in a back to back arrangement and maintaining the front and rear wall portions in a spaced apart position in which the front and rear wall portions define an intermediate space; and a fill of loose filler material at least partially filling the intermediate space, a sum of the first and second mass being less than the total mass and the fill having a third mass per unit length constituting at least the remainder of the preselected total mass per unit length; wherein the facing blocks, the intermediate space and the loose filler material are separated by the backer blocks from the material to be retained. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10)
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11. A method for assembling a retaining wall for retaining a loose material of a predetermined first height, the retaining wall having a second height at least equal to the first height and a minimum total mass per unit length required for retaining the loose material of the first height, the method comprising the steps of
obtaining a plurality of concrete facing blocks respectively having a back surface and a front surface, and a known mass; -
obtaining a plurality of concrete backer blocks respectively having a back surface and a front surface, and a known mass, determining a first mass per unit length of a continuous wall of stacked facing blocks of the second height; determining a second mass per unit length of a continuous wall of stacked backer blocks of the second height; determining a required volume of a loose filler material of known density needed per unit length of the wall to provide a third mass of filler material per unit length, which third mass is equal to at least a difference between the total mass per unit length and the sum of the first and second mass per unit length; stacking the concrete facing and backer blocks in a back-to-back orientation to form a continuous front wall portion of facing blocks and having the second height and a continuous rear wall portion of backer blocks having the second height; during stacking of the facing and backer blocks, connecting the back surface of each facing block in the front wall portion with the back surface of a least one backer block in the rear wall portion with a connector for connecting the front and rear wall portions in the back-to-back orientation and forming an intermediate space for receiving the filler material, a length of the connectors being selected for the intermediate space having a volume per unit length at least equal to the required volume, whereby the backer blocks are stacked against the material to be retained without embedding the backer blocks in the material to be retained for separating the intermediate space from the material to be retained; and filling the intermediate space with the volume of loose filler material to form the retaining wall of the minimum total mass. - View Dependent Claims (12, 13, 14)
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15. A modular wall system for constructing a freestanding retaining wall for retaining a loose material of a predetermined height, the retaining wall having a rear face for placement against the loose material to be retained, an exposed front face and a predetermined base width and total mass per unit length sufficient for maintaining the retaining wall upright against a pressure exerted by the loose material at the preselected height, the system comprising
backer blocks stackable against the loose material and into a continuous rear wall portion of the preselected height, for forming the rear face, the rear wall portion having a first mass; -
facing blocks stackable into a continuous front wall portion of the preselected height for forming the front face, the front wall portion having a second mass, a sum of the first and second mass being less than the total mass; connectors for connecting each facing block in the front wall portion with at least one backer block in the rear wall portion to form an intermediate hollow space of fixed volume between the front and back wall portions, the fixed volume being defined by the preselected height of the retaining wall and a length of the connectors, the intermediate space being separated from the loose material by the rear wall portion; and an amount of loose filler material of a known density for filling the fixed volume, the length of the connectors being selected for a width of the retaining wall being at least equal to the base width and the amount of loose filler material having an overall third mass constituting at least the remainder of the total mass. - View Dependent Claims (16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 22, 23)
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21. The modular wall system of claim 21, wherein the retaining structures in the backer blocks are spaced at 1W or less.
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24. A kit for constructing a freestanding retaining wall for retaining a loose material of a predetermined height, the retaining wall having a rear face for placement against the loose material to be retained, an exposed front face and a predetermined base width and total mass per unit length sufficient for maintaining the retaining wall upright against a pressure exerted by the loose material at the preselected height, comprising
X backer blocks and Y facing blocks, the facing blocks being stackable into a continuous front wall portion and the backer blocks being stackable into a continuous rear wall portion for placement against the material to be retained; -
connectors for connecting the backer blocks with the facing blocks in a back to back arrangement for the front and rear wall portions to define an intermediate space for filling with loose filler material when the facing blocks and backer blocks are connected by the connectors in the back to back arrangement, the connectors each having at least two connecting ends for respective interlocking engagement with a facing block and a backer block and each of the facing and backer blocks having multiple spaced apart retaining structures for respectively receiving one of the connecting ends; instructions for selecting a length of the connectors to adjust a volume of the intermediate space so that a mass of the filler material in the intermediate space together with a mass of the front wall portion and a mass of the rear wall portion adding up to at least the total mass; and an amount of loose filler material of a known density, the amount of loose filler material having an overall third mass constituting at least the remainder of the total mass. - View Dependent Claims (25)
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Specification