Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: My Retaining Wall 4Oct 28, 2009 11:07 am Cheers chocoholic. Was thinking of running power down there for either a water feature or maybe a nice Japanese Maple with a light shining on it ontop of a small deck. Someone also mentioned to put some type of mirror on the deck so that the wall could be seen from the top from the reflection. Would also make the area look alot larger. I like the idea.. Just need to find some pics of something similar. Cheers, Mike. My Blog... http://ahouseonthehill.blogspot.com/ Re: My Retaining Wall 6Oct 28, 2009 9:22 pm Just try and mix that soil through the clay you have rather than do a layer on top. You should find why that is easy enough in some of my other posts in here, unlike the task itself (ie turf laying summary) Hire a little rotary tiller to do the work for you You will thank me in years to come, some sand wouldn't go astray either You'll love it ... sorry, your back hurts already ( ) The wall looks ace Re: My Retaining Wall 7Oct 29, 2009 8:44 am Step lights would look nice - we have two on ours but couldnt put any along the wall as we thought of it too late. But the step light give subtle lights on the stairs and it looks good at night. Uplights on any feature (big pot, water feature or a tree) would look excellent. Are those bricks concreted? A friend used a similar one on his on two tiers, with the top tier being his lawn like yours and it started moving after several years. But I think your tiers are not as high as his so maybe that's why his became unstable. Looks good anyway, dont forget to show off when your project is all done! Re: My Retaining Wall 8Oct 30, 2009 8:35 am Chocoholic: They haven't been concreted in. Each level sits on a 100-150mm course of compacted 20mm crushed rock. Also each row is only 300-400mm high. Not much weight behind each. Was also going to adhere the top of each row down as there is a little movement on a couple of the bricks & the steps as well. Fu: Was actually going to ask you about this. I will be turning over the soil again to mix through the layers. Also add all the goodies that you recommend... Powerfeed, seasol, molassas etc before I lay the turf. In some parts of the ground, before I added topsoil, I could turn over 100-150mm of soil, whereas in other parts the rotary hoe barely scratched the surface... 20mm tops! Is this going to make a big difference to the way the turf "takes" to the soil? Was also going to put in irrigation through the lawn as I have a water tank & pump. About 9 of the pop up type sprinkler heads. What are your thoughts on this... A little bit of overkill maybe Cheers, Mike. My Blog... http://ahouseonthehill.blogspot.com/ Re: My Retaining Wall 9Oct 30, 2009 9:46 am Lovely! Looks like a professional job to me. You have the perfect location for a "lower lager lounge". Decking would be awesome, some comfy seating, a shade tree, somewhere to put the coldies.... Re: My Retaining Wall 10Oct 31, 2009 1:11 pm Hi Firthy - top job, look fantastic. I have a few questions as I'm looking at doing my backyard soon.... - How did you find doing the steps? Did you concrete them in or are the blocks stable enough to just lay them like the rest of the wall? - I did a smaller/simpler wall at the front of my place and just compacted the base with a sledge hammer and wooden block as the ground was so hard there was no give in it anyway. But I found that getting the level correct was a 'block by block' process and was very time consuming. After you used the wacker did you do anything else to get the levels just right? I found the surface has to be perfectly flat or ir looks rubbish. Do you have any easy technique here? - What brand are the blocks you are using and where did you get them from? I used Austral Linkwall which is more expensive and I found the size inconsistant which made laying them alot harder. Thanks alot.. Re: My Retaining Wall 12Nov 05, 2009 9:26 am Mozzie How did you find doing the steps? Did you concrete them in or are the blocks stable enough to just lay them like the rest of the wall? Hi Mozzie. Once I worked out how far I had to come out from where the top level would meet the turf & how far down I had to dig the trench, the steps just fell into place. I put compacted crushed rock beneath them as well as the brick at the front that it sits on & they're very solid. I will (when I get time) liquid nail them to the brick underneath so there won't be any movement down the track. Mozzie What brand are the blocks you are using and where did you get them from? The brand of bricks are called "stackstone" (made by ECS Masonary) & they are in Ivory. Got them from a place in Fountain Gate called Brick n Pave http://www.bricknpave.com.au/Products.htm. They have some spring specials on atm which works out pretty cheap for what I needed. Very helpful too. Mozzie After you used the wacker did you do anything else to get the levels just right? I made sure the crushed rock was as level as possible before I started laying the first course. As you said, it takes a while doing it this way, but I was happy with the finished product. It would have been easier to put a course of sand ontop of the rock & lay the bricks on that, or a mortar mix instead of sand. Cheers, Mike. My Blog... http://ahouseonthehill.blogspot.com/ Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5143 Thanks for the insights, that makes perfect sense, and yeah, I will be leaning on the experience of the excavator operator entirely. 6 16106 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 6895 |