Free Retaining Wall Calculator

The Retaining Wall Calculator helps engineers design Cantilever and Gravity retaining walls and is suitable for calculation of block or concrete walls. This free tool includes calculations for overturning, sliding and, bearing utilisation ratios as part of your retaining wall design. With the full retaining wall design software, a PDF design report can be generated to show the detailed calculations steps and references followed to achieve the results.

Various components of the retaining system can be calculated including the retaining wall stem, the concrete retaining wall footing and the soil layers on both sides of the wall.

This easy-to-use Retaining Wall Calculator also allows engineers calculate a number of important design results for Cantilever Retaining Walls. These results include calculations for sliding, bearing and overturning and the factory of safety for each result. Each of these stability calculations are for concrete retaining walls and are a critical part of any retaining wall design.

Thanks to the flexible inputs and easy user interface of, the same properties can be calculated for a model that represents a gravity retaining wall. Let us know if you'd like to receive updates as we add support for more wall types. The retaining wall base provides vertical pressure (in addition to the soil weight) provides the gravity force to resists the overturning moments and sliding forces of the retaining wall.

The Retaining Wall Calculator provides detailed calculation and reporting for sliding, bearing and overturning failure required for any retaining wall design. These capacities are calculated in accordance with The Reinforced Concrete Design Handbook, ACI SP-17(14), Vol. 2. The retaining wall Sliding calculations are performed to check that the concrete retaining wall has enough capacity from any lateral force that may cause sliding. Similarly, any forces at the top of the stem would create a moment force, the overturning calculations ensure that the structure is safe against such actions. Finally, the retaining wall bearing calculations are to ensure the soil has enough bearing capacity to withstand the forces from the retaining wall.

All calculations come with a PDF detailed design report which lets engineers review the step by step calculations made.

SkyCiv offers a wide range of Cloud Structural Analysis and Design Software for engineers. As a constantly evolving tech company, we're committed to innovating and challenging existing workflows to save engineers time in their work processes and designs.