Wondering if anyone else had heard this or if this is nonsense. When ordering block for a retaining wall and touching on getting landscape fabric, the suppier insisted that the use of the fabric is no good as what happens is that the silt blocks the pores of the fabric so that ground water cannot get thru to drain. Then you have a reservoir that will push out your wall.
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CR-- my guess it that a lot would depend on what type of soil you have in your area, around here it is either rock ledges or heavy red clay, I have allways used a fabric with all retaining walls that I have built, the material I use is not really a land scape cloth which is used for weed control but a coarser weaved ground stabelization cloth used in highway construction and DOT approved . I have redone many retaining walls that have had just gravel and weep holes behind them and silt has cribbed all the gravel together making one semisolid mass noway could it have offered much in the way of drainage. I started using the drainage method I use now in 1978 and have never had a call back, or a wall failure in all that time. The trick is to have a large enough space to begin with behind the wall to install the fabric--then follow with a small layer of clean meduim sized gravel- then lay a sock incased drainage pipe on the first layer of stone , repeat adding the gravel to a depth of two ft. then add another drainage pipe, do this until within 10" of the top of the wall , then fold over the rest of the fabic ,attaching with landscape staples to hold the fabric to the ground then bury with top soil. In my opinion you can't overbiuld with drainage issues more than enough is allways welcome.
Water build-up behind a retaining wall is a Bad Thing™since the water building up can cause the wall to over-turn.
Is your supplier right? Kinda sorta maybe. You didn't really provide a lot regarding specific conditions, so I can't really say without details. In most cases, water will find its way out no matter what. But there are ways to help it.
I recommend that you have a good drainage zone behind the retaining wall with a good gradation, usually 3/4" inch crushed, and with a day-lighted drainage pipe at the base of the wall, you should be fine.
You also should consider a clay cap about the drainage zone to divert surface water runoff.
For further information, I recommend you browse the following site:
http://www.keystonewalls.com/index.html
Recommended page for drainage:
http://www.keystonewalls.com/media/literature.pdfs/ConstM_drainage.pdf