Tim,
My wife wants me to build a 16" tall concrete block wall to lay a "fake rock" on to cover a sprinkler system pump we have at our lake home. I already have the solid concrete blocks. The dimensions of the wall will be 4.5 feet long and 4 feet wide. The "fake rock" (designed to be a pump cover) looks a like a boulder and covers the pump. I need to build the wall around the pump so animals, etc cannot get in under the rock. Should I build a footing and how deep should the footing be? Each side will be two blocks high (16 inches) None of the walls will be weight bearing. This is similar to a small retaining wall used for landscaping. The fake boulder will then bolt to the wall, so it can be removed as needed.
Robert J. Pullin
Iowa
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Robert,
If you don't install a footing, all of your work will be for naught. Over time, the frost movement within the soil will destroy the wall. You need to discover the frost depth of your soil out there in Iowa. It may be 36 inches or very close to it. Your local building department will tell you the frost depth.
The footer should be eight inches thick and have steel reinforcing bars in it. They should bend in one piece around corners and when you overlap bars, make sure the bars overlap two feet.
Tim Carter
www.askthebuilder.com
W3ATB