Flat Rock Retaining Wall

Want to build your own stone retaining wall but unsure how to start.

Flat rock retaining wall.

Retaining walls are required for slopes and structural purposes as they use footings to hold a wall in place and better retain soil. Our flat stone walls are built by placing large stones together as closely as possible medium and small stones are then fitted into the wall creating neat tight joins. The wide base needs to go back into the slope at least half as wide as the wall is tall. Learn how to choose the right material for your retaining wall.

This makes your rock wall into a 50 year wall. Retaining walls are used to create a transition from one level of ground to another. One of the most common scenarios that calls for a freestanding wall versus a retaining wall is whether a home is positioned on flat or sloping ground. In other words for a four foot wall two feet wide.

Select flat rocks that are flat on one side to be top stones. Try to cut the ditch into native soil rather than loose added soil as the former provides a more stable foundation for the wall. Unlike other types of retaining walls stacked stone walls don t need drainage systems because water escapes naturally through cracks between the stones. For a stacked block retaining wall that s no higher than four feet a trench filled with three inches of crushed rock will help keep the wall from shifting and settling.

Tame a slope with a terrace of loose stone retaining walls. We construct two main types of stone walls flat stone retaining walls and boulder walls. Sedimentary flat stones such as ashlar and flagstone are among the easiest to use when building a wall of this type. An ideal rock has six parallel faces like a brick.

Dig a ditch the length of the wall that is about a foot wide and 8 to 12 inches 20 5 cm 30 5 cm below the ground level. Place the top stones as the last layer of rock taking care to make the top of the wall as flat as possible. If you an uneven yard a stone retaining wall can help prevent erosion and provides a nice place to plant. Wipe any excess mortar from the rocks.

This ditch will act as the wall s footing and prevent the rocks from sliding forward due to pressure from the earth behind. This footing is similar to a concrete retaining wall just not as engineered. Without this simple footing the rocks have a tendency to move. Apply mortar to seal in the top stones.

Create a rock retaining wall. A retaining wall is a diy front yard landscaping idea that can be done with boulders or large river rock depending on the size of the wall. Regretfully there aren t many ideal rocks available so look for angular rocks with the most flat faces.