Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Apr 22, 2016 3:56 pm I am planning on installing some low height (max 600mm) retaining walls for our sloping front garden. One wall will create a small terrace halfway up the slope, the other will be the garden edge at the bottom of the slope. I was thinking of doing this using small sandstone "bushrock" stones/small boulders about 30-50 cm in length of which I have plenty already on the property and are also easy to find being given away online from excavations etc. I have a few things that I would love to get some advice on: 1. What should the ground preparation be for the base row? I thought of the following options: a) Flat, compacted soil b) As for (a) but with compacted roadbase. c) As for (a) but use cement/mortar to lock in the base row stones. d) Dig small trench so that part of the base row is below ground level and fill with cement/mortar to lock in place. 2. For the subsequent rows I was going to cement/mortar the stones in place as I don't think they will be heavy enough to just "drystack" and still hold back the soil. What is the correct sort of cement or mortar to use on this type of wall? 3. The garden soil seems to be fairly "normal" with some clay areas, it certainly isn't sandy by any means - therefore do I need to use a socked agi-pipe and geofabric for the drainage? What size aggregate is good for this application to put over the pipe? Thanks in advance for any advice. Re: Stone retaining wall - advice needed 2Apr 22, 2016 4:13 pm If most of the stones are 300mm to 500mm then I would build a dry stone wall with the face of the wall leaning back. This will improve the stability of the wall and the gaps between the stones will allow water to seep through reducing hydrostatic pressure on the wall. If using mortar, a reinforced foundation may be required to prevent cracking also consider the colour of the mortar. A mortar using only cement and sand may look too dark. Try building a test wall using a lime/cement/sand mixture, for example try 2 parts lime, 1 part cement and 9 parts sand. Re: Stone retaining wall - advice needed 3Apr 25, 2016 9:02 pm Beetaloo If most of the stones are 300mm to 500mm then I would build a dry stone wall with the face of the wall leaning back. This will improve the stability of the wall and the gaps between the stones will allow water to seep through reducing hydrostatic pressure on the wall. If using mortar, a reinforced foundation may be required to prevent cracking also consider the colour of the mortar. A mortar using only cement and sand may look too dark. Try building a test wall using a lime/cement/sand mixture, for example try 2 parts lime, 1 part cement and 9 parts sand. Thanks for the advice - would you still put in agi pipe drainage or rely on allowing the water to seep through? Also, if doing a dry wall without mortar as you suggested what sort of base would you use? Re: Stone retaining wall - advice needed 4Nov 14, 2016 8:18 pm Hi, just bumping this thread again. I have decided to go with a dry stack wall as I have found enough large rocks to do the job. I have read many varying opinions on whether drainage is needed being a porous wall - some say none, some say aggregate only behind the wall, others say full aggregate and agi-pipe drain. What do you guys think, or what has your experience been? Hi All, I engaged a tradie to install concrete retaining wall 600-800mm high over 32 meters in Victoria. Sleepers are 200*75*2000 mm installed over 17 steel posts. I… 0 6889 Versaloc is a mortarless besser block system that still needs a properly engineered footing. If you just do a 400x200 footing it will fail in time. At 17m long you need it… 1 15648 Can anyone recommend a good/affordable retaining wall and fence builder that I can get a quote from located in Sydney? 8 45705 |