The Great Wall of 2026 - Other David's Workshops Projects

Part 3 Deconstruction and Preparation

The drain and water control was, for the most part, working. I felt comfortable starting on removing the old wall.

*—You recall this mess for an earlier post?—*

There were quite few blocks and I needed to figure out what to do with them. I thought about having them picked up and disposed of. A quick check of the costs and I ruled that option out immediately.

Then it occurred to me that I could reuse them in yet another…wait for it… wall. Geez another project! Talk about mission creep. More on that later.

I started pulling and stacking the block on a few pallets I had had left over from last year’s projects but they were quickly used up. My little tractor could only lift about 500 lbs. Six or eight blocks was just about the limit. Anything more and the rear tires started losing traction and I would bet eventually come off the ground. Some quick math and I figured I’d need thirty pallets.

I started scouring Facebook Marketplace for free or almost free pallets. The choices I had were beat-up and unusable or way over-priced. Then I happened on to a company, Chip Energy, that recycles pallet wood for pellets and fireplace logs. They had good prices on solid pallets and the location was only 10 minutes from the house. I made a deal for some pallets and took a couple of trips to bring them back. I would end up making a couple of more trips as the project went along, to buy extra.

*— This photo is was taken in 2009. The pile is even higher now. Believe me when I say it was at least 150′ tall now. Photo: Peoria Journal Star—*

*—After cleaning up the fallen block, this was the first block that I actually removed from the wall. One down, 99 to go—*

The wall used plastic pins to hold the blocks in place. I tried to salvage as many as I could. Without the pins, there was nothing to hold the blocks to each other, making them unusable as a wall.

— The previous builders used pea gravel to keep the dirt separated from the wall and allow for drainage. A lot of pea gravel. I needed to get all of it out of the way. Note: there is still another course of block to remove from under the gravel!—

*—There seemed to be no end to the gravel. The years of dirt coming down the hill covered the gravel and now the every time I took a shovel full out, more gravel flowed in to take it’s place—*

*—I would estimate I hauled 15 ton of gravel. I piled it near the top off the hill for later use—*

*—After what seemed weeks, the block was neatly stacked up the hill, away from the new wall—*

I cleaned out the trench trying to get it at least 12″ deep and 18-24″ wide.

*—This was after one of our heavy rain storms. This demonstrated the need for drainage tile behind the wall and that the designed drainage at the top of the hill was still not working quite right—*

After two days off draining the trench was ready for the next step. Road pack or CA-6. CA-6 is crushed limestone that includes the ‘fines’ that are usually washed out. This type of gravel, when packed, provides footing support that is almost as solid as concrete. I backfilled the trench with about 12 ton of pack, leveled it out and then rented the machine from hell. A Jumping Jack compactor model B550-4.

*—Allow me to introduce you to my little friend. Who’s kidding who, Mr. Jumping Jack is nobody’s friend!—*

When compacting a base for support, there are a couple of choices; a plate compactor and the aforementioned jumping jack. The plate packer is about 20″ and is much easier to operate but the narrow trench would not allow the plate packer enough contact so I rented Mr. JJ.

Imagine a 250 pound machine literally hopping up and down 600 times a minute. I’d had some experience with these beasts so I sort of knew what to expect. Starting out in the loose pack it was smoother but more difficult to move. And going down hill was pretty easy. Going up the grade was trickier

—The machine did give me feedback. The machine would start jumping a little higher and hitting the pack harder which allowed me to feel the vibration in the ground. This told me the gravel was getting packed into submission—

*—All packed and ready for the next the construction phase—*

The wall will now have a 6-12″ packed base. That should be enough. It was time to start assembling the new wall.

Part 3

Deconstruction and Preparation

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