Our pond is on a slope and we had to build a 40 inch tall cinder block wall on the back side of the pond. We poured concrete footers below the frost line with rebar installed horizontally for added strength. We then used cinderblock for each course of wall. We added rebar vertically every other block and horizontally every other row and filled all block cavities with concrete for added strength. We built pilasters on the back side exterior of the wall for extra strength. We backfilled the wall on the inside of the pond with dirt to create a slope and to relieve some of the water pressure. For the front side of the pond we poured a 12 inch wide footer tying it into the wall with rebar so that the pond is level all the way around. The raised collar in the front prevents runoff water from entering the pond. The cinder block walls are covered with a stone veneer and rocks.

Hello - the bulk of this post is older, but hopefully you guys can still give me some advice. We recently moved to Chicago and are renting a house - 2 days after we moved in we noticed a bulge in one of the walls. We own our house in San Francisco, and we've done a lot of work on it, but it's a framed house, so we have no experience with brick. My dad's a structural engineer in Eastern Europe - I sent him the pictures, and he said: break your lease/move out. Now, he has lots of experience, but might not be relevant. The house was built in 1890, and several parts were added/remodeled since, as late as 2005. We contacted the property management company, and they said they'll pass the info to the owner, but there's been no response for several days. Does this look dangerous? Should we move out?

i have really learned to love my plaster walls. it is a material unbelievably superior to drywall in terms of sound resistance, durability, and literally giving your house structure. it blows my mind that anyone would rip out plaster and replace it with drywall. ranting aside (i know you didn't suggest such a thing!); the trade-off is that the walls are rarely perfectly uniform and repairing them requires a fair amount of patience and knowledge of rarely used products. youtube fortunately offers a wealth of information on using plaster washers or even injecting adhesive. people have come up with some pretty creative ways to deal with plaster. these are projects and you should give yourself appropriate time and prepare your workspace accordingly. it would be easy to spend a couple weekends getting it right. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qYSQBH5rbmU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zuj_1jhizt4

I'm definitely not an expert, but we did just remodel a 1928 bathroom. Our ceiling and walls were pretty wonky. I am guessing if your ceiling is off, places in the walls are off - it's probably not even consistent on one wall! I don't feel like it was from settling (our house is brick) but more like the nuances of plaster. Because we had to live in this bathroom and were DIY, gutting it was not an option, however we both agree that would have been the best choice. It would have helped with electric, plumbing, setting the tiles easier, etc... We elected to do Durabond to smooth out the surfaces where we could. The walls weren't sanded down very far - just to get the paint to scuff. Any plaster that wasn't sound did break off from the vibration, and that meant that the area truly needed to be repaired a little more deeply.