block wall surround property, pricing question.

[rnln]

I feel one side of my wall is a little too short, 5.5' facing a traffic street. almost 90% in my neighborhood extended it up to 3 more rows, which I want to do. Anyone know if I need city permit for this?

I saw several guys were working on doing this near my house. I stopped by to talked to them and found that walls in my neighborhood don't have rebars at all. Before putting in new block, 3 rows in top, he is putting in a verticle bar through each existing bocks from top to bottom. He is charging $500 every section include labor and material (around 10 blocks across, 3 blocks in vertible). Is this a reasonable price? Someone told me this old type of block is ugly but cost around $2/each block.
Any opinion?

[rusnak]

Anythig over 6' should be an engineered wall. The casons are probably with very thick rebar, and filled with cement.

[look 171]

You need a permit if its over 4' in LA and many of the other cities around here. this is measures from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall. At 5'5", you should get it engineer. it is holding up the hill side? Put in the rebar (not vertical) and tie it into the footing. they are cheap enough just for insurance. Foolish to build anything like that without rebars. What city are you in again? Socal right? The general rule of thumb is around 60 bucks a lin. foot for a 6' wall. For a smaller length, the cost may be more per lineal foot.

Jeff

[rnln]

I think I didn't make it clear enough Look 171. The wall is there already, without rebar. Maybe because people don't use rebar at the time. Now, this guy will knock the top piece and stick the bar in from top to bottom, each verticle line, and extend 3 more blocks at the top. So basically he will raise the wall from 5.5' to around 9'.
So you are saying $60 per 6' line? That is $30 for 3' raise?

[look 171]

Usually it should be right around 60+ bucks for each lineal foot of block wall at 6' high, that's with footing and rebars. if you have 100 lineal feet of block wall at 6" tall, then the price should be around $6000.00. so, at 10 lineal', there's no way the block wall man could do it for 600 bucks because he would not be making any money instead, he will loose money.

be careful, fire code requires the wall should not be more then 6'.

I just re-read your post. $500 bucks sound reasonable. he has to fill every cell with concrete. You need the wall that high for sound barrier. it should take two guys all day to do it. Minus materials, they should walkaway with about $160 in their pockets. It sounds reasonable for a days work.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

No way I'd want an unreinforced wall higher than 3' or so anyway. To get it to 6' would likely require retrofitting the existing wall as well as the new construction.

[A930Rocket]

An unbalanced wall shouldn't be higher than 3-4'. A freestanding wall without reinforcement can go to about 6' IIRC.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Agreed although it might be allowed by code in some areas - I'd double-check (think seismic requirements) and in any case I'd get a little leery of anything higher than maybe 3'-4' unreinforced, especially in a seismic zone.

I tend to agree with most of what's been said above regarding pricing and construction. Depending on how the existing wall is laid out and what the top condition is, it might be a simple matter to grout every other cell (or every fourth cell, whatever it takes per calculations) with a bar in there. Essentially cost of material - if there are capstones that have to be removed they'd likely get pulled off anyway to extend the wall up higher so no increase in labor cost, just more grout and more (or longer) bars...

What's the goal anyway - sound attenuation? Visual/light barrier? Deter trespassers?

How are the mortar joints on the existing portion of the wall? Without reinforcing that's your likely failure point, especially with new load above it (with fresh, newer, stronger mortar joints).

[Zeke]

You may be able to place new columns at 8 to 10 foot spacing, add the vertical and tie some horizontal to the columns at the existing height. As it is, you are no where near the code requirements for steel and footings.

If you are anywhere near Garden Grove, stop by B.C. Adams Engineering (civil) and ask if they have done anything like this. In the 50 years they have been there for the pool, fence and patio cover trades, they have seen it all. They are very homeowner friendly and quite reasonable.

Frankly, I think I'd start over and get an all new wall for the price you can get it for nowadays. In Long Beach, I tell folks to plan on 80 to 100 per foot for everything in the back on the property line for a 6'6" x 6" block.

[rnln]

Thanks all.
Look 171, can you read your PM?

[GH85Carrera]

If all you want is more privacy can't you put something to block the view that is very light on top of the wall? There must be some sort of lightweight fencing that can be painted to blend in with the current wall.

[dipso]

I put 2' redwood privacy lattice on top of mine. Then I just grew bouganvilla on it. Lightweight and serves it's purpose.
As far as adding the rebar goes. If the rebar is needed to hold up the entire wall. I don't see how just putting it in from the top will work. The rebar on a new block wall construction is set into the footing.

If the rebar is designed to just secure the top few courses, you will be fine.

If the wall is ugly you may want to grow something on it anyways. In that case the lattice would be great. You could even just put lattice across the entire face of the thing.
Another thing you could do is stucco the wall. Then paint it the same color as the stucco on the house. Your side only, of course. I think that looks nice.

Not sure where you live, but I had our back wall 60' , cemented and stuccoed for 900.00.

[rnln]

about rebar, I saw them worked on another house by using a long rebar to knock down from top to the bottom. Of course, it's not as perfect as building rebar since the begining because this rebar won't go through the foundation. Instead, it's stay on top of the foundation. Then he did pour cement through the whole rebar long. The rebar extend up through the whole new blocks. Although, it doesn't go through the foundation, it's still better than without it, especially with full cement inside.
First reason was privacy, yes. There are tall guys can look through the 6' wall while walking. There are people just stand there and look into my property. Also, rocks fly from cars hit window. I like a tall wall better than wood top because I can stucco it and paint it from top to bottom. But if it's not allowed, then wood top (or anything light) will have to be the case.
Thanks guys.