How To Build A Retaining Wall
Even though building a retaining wall may seem quite complicated, if you have a friend to help and the correct tools you can really build your very own retaining wall. Among the common retaining wall materials are stone (natural and precast), bricks, concrete, hard wood, steel, or railroad ties. The material to use depends on the purpose of your retaining wall. That is to say you need bigger stone blocks or concrete masonry if you're leveling a steep sloping yard, and you need smaller stone blocks if you're only building a garden retaining wall.
Here's how to build a retaining wall for a raised flower bed.
1. Outline the shape of your garden retaining wall: circular, rectangular, rectangular with curved edges or what have you.
2. Mark your outline with a spray paint or stake and ropes and measure the dimension.
3. Take the measurement to your favorite construction store and order your customized pre-cast concrete stone block with lip lock system that conforms to the shape of your retaining wall when assembled.
4. Dig about 12 inches deep trench ensuring that it’s as level as possible. Lay leveling sand or patio paver base in the trench compacting it with hand packer to ensure a level solid base. Use your ground leveling tool to check if the solid base is perfectly leveled.
5. Lay each base row blocks ensuring that it's flat using a carpenter's level. Repeat the process until all base row blocks are laid before checking the level again with a ground level to check if it's aligned and perfectly flat. Perfectly leveling the base row saves you time later when you're laying the top rows.
Tip: Knock the flange off using a chisel and a mallet for the base blocks for easy leveling.
6. Lay the top rows with the joints staggered with the lower row. You may need to cut a block in half using a masonry wet saw to make this happen. Ensure that the lip at the back of the block interlocks with the top of the lower row. Lay all the top rows to achieve the desired height of your flower bed and - voila - you just built your garden retaining wall.
Tip: Install a perforated pipe for a higher retaining wall to ensure proper drainage of your flower bed.
Building a retaining wall is made easier with pre-cast stone blocks you can buy from landscaping or home improvement stores. Now, there's no excuse why you can't add a focal point in your garden with a retaining-wall-raised flower bed.
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Market Wire - Maryland's Innovative Technology Seed Capital Fund Awarded to Furbish Company for Its Vegetated Retaining Wall System February 3, 2010 -- Baltimore-based Furbish Company announcesthat its latest addition to the company's line of sustainable products andservices, SmartSlope, a... | ||
Retaining wall in Haltom City holds back soil, gives residents peace of mind - Fort Worth Star Telegram
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Retaining wall wont see a quick fix (San Antonio Express-News) A fast, patchwork repair of the collapsed retaining wall at a Northwest Side neighborhood wont be enough for city officials. More coverage of the collapse.. | ||
Retaining wall won't see a quick fix | San Antonio Apartments And this week it started talking to evacuated residents about whether they want to move from a hotel into an apartment or extended-stay suite. EURœThey're doing a lot of sampling and gathering data. We're just pressing them for a solution... | ||
City says retaining walls go uninspected - KENS 5 TV
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W. Seattle driver totaled Prius in acceleration incident - Seattle Times
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Driver injured when retaining wall falls (KCEN-TV Temple) FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) - Fort Worth police say a 20-foot-tall section of retaining wall along a Fort Worth street fell on a car, causing the car to roll and injuring the driver... | ||
Driver injured when retaining wall falls (News 8 Austin) Fort Worth police said that a 53-year-old driver was westbound on West Vickery Boulevard on Friday afternoon when a retaining wall fell on his car... | ||
Dave's Landslide Blog: Ongoing massive retaining wall failure in . In the United States there is an interesting developing story about a large-scale retaining wall failure that is causing the collapse of a housing estate in San Antonio, Texas. The housing development, called the Rivermist subdivision, ... | ||
S. Calif. Storm Brings Mudslides, Flooding - CBS News (CBS/AP) Thunderous mudslides swept away cars and pushed furniture out of homes and into the streets in the foothills north of Los Angeles Saturday as an intense winter storm brought down hillsides in wildfire burn areas. At least 41 homes were ... | ||
Retaining wall won't see a quick fix A fast, patchwork repair of the collapsed retaining wall at a Northwest Side neighborhood won't be enough for city officials. More coverage of the collapse... | ||
Fort Worth Retaining Wall Falls on Car (KCEN-TV Temple) A 20-foot-tall section of a retaining wall fell on a car in Fort Worth causing it to roll. It happened yesterday afternoon on West Vickery Boulevard. The driver was hurt and taken to the hospital but is expected to be ok... | ||
Most evacuations called off after LA-area mudslide - WNYT A retaining wall on Fernandes property burst and 2 feet of mud was piled on his driveway, topped with a layer of ash from last summers wildfire. Family photographs, toys, furniture items and other items were dotted throughout the debris that ... | ||
Rivermist residents file lawsuit against Pulte and Centex over retaining-wall . - San Antonio Business Journal
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Carbon County woman is hospitalized after SUV slams into retaining wall - Allentown Morning Call
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Retaining Wall Construction The initial step in retaining wall construction should be to determine the size or area of the retaining wall by linear foot. This may figure into the estimate of materials needed later. Mark off the area with a string line and allow ... | ||
Maggie Valley residents escape massive mudslide - Asheville Citizen-Times A wall of debris some 30 feet high roared down the mountain north of downtown for about 3,000 feet . Investigators believe breached retaining walls at Ghost Town in the Sky amusement park at the top of the slide area could have played a part ... | ||
Market Wire - Allan Block(R) Has the First Eco-Friendly Concrete Retaining Wall System Available -- AB Fieldstone January 26, 2010 -- AllanBlock Corporation is pleased to release the first Eco-Friendlymortarless concrete retaining wall system -- the AB Fieldstone... | ||
Al Bawaba - GAM Implements Al Wihdat Parallel Market January 26, 2010 -- Greater Amman Municipality (GAM) completed recently the works of Al-Wihdat market project on Al Yarmouk Street with a cost amounting to JD... | ||
Carbon County woman is hospitalized after SUV slams into retaining wall (The Morning Call) A 23-year-old Summit Hill woman remained hospitalized Friday after crashing her vehicle into a stone retaining wall in Schuylkill County Thursday afternoon... | ||
AFP - Obama slams landmark campaign finance shift January 21, 2010 -- WASHINGTON (AFP) âEUR” The US Supreme Court Thursday lifted curbs on corporations spending millions of dollars to back election candidates, in a... | ||
Homes evacuated in San Antonio as hill crumbles - Washington Post
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Mudslides assault homes near LA - WANE-TV Authorities say 43 homes have been damaged and 540 are under evacuation orders in the aftermath of powerful mudslides in the foothills north of Los Angeles that were stripped by a summer wildfire. Los Angeles County Supervisor Mike Antonovich said at ... | ||
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