>>2982617
This wall the guy is building will push out in 10 years or 5 years in a cold region where the ground freezes.
You need tiebacks, drainage, etc if you don’t want to keep re-doing it.

>>2982618
A french drain at the base with an exit hole and some gravel behind the blocks. Shouldn’t need any geogrid until you’re building a 6ft+ wall

>>2982617
in terms of physical difficulty i'd say not that bad.

HOWEVER, it depends.

difficulty is relative. for me it makes no difference if a block is 5/50 pounds or if i need to stack 20/100 of them. for you it might be the hardest labor you've ever put in.

as for the technical knowledge required, i don't think its that much. again though, it depends. i don't know what you know. and its hard to know what you don't know.

its very highly dependent on your environment though. when in doubt, talk to a consultant. not necessarily pay/hire one nor does it have to be a professional. find the local guys who build build them in your area and show them pictures of your property. if they don't know, they probably do know someone who does and wouldn't mind sharing. its generally a good idea to get along with the local laborers anyways; bring them water and beer as a common courtesy and try not to get in they way of their work.

i did a 4x8x4 open box cassion with a wired tiller, shop vac, bags and buckets took a few months of one bag of dirt per week in the garbage but was easy letting the vaccumm do the lifting and the tiller making it small enough for the vac, i was doing maybe 20 minutes a day you'd be surprised how much dirt you can get out one bag a day.

>>2983545
most vacs have a head height around 2ft