Landscaping Wall
28 Oct 2008
The Basics of Building a Landscaping Wall
If you are building a landscaping wall for retaining purposes in needs to be strong enough to hold back the necessary weight, yet porous enough to allow for drainage. A stone landscaping wall is probably the most popular choice.
There are two basic types of stone landscaping wall: the dry type, which uses soil to fill the area between the stones, and the mortar type, which uses cement mortar to hold the stones together.
Landscaping Wall Foundations
The foundation of a landscaping wall used for retaining needs to reach below the frost line. Check to find out how deep this is in your area. A flat wall without buttresses or projections should have a width at the base equal to 1/4th the height of the landscaping wall. As the wall rises it can taper down to a width about 1/4th the width of the base.
Dry Landscaping Walls
The cheapest way to build a dry stone landscaping wall is to use local stone, using large stones for the main building blocks and smaller stones for the chinks in between the large stones. The very biggest stones should be sorted to use in building the base of the landscaping wall with the medium and smaller stones being using at the top. If the wall is porous enough you can get away without providing for drainage pipe
The face of the wall should be as flat as possible. Round stones do not work well for building walls and should not be used. Stones on one course should overlap the spaces in the lower course. If a stone does not fit well, earth or smaller stones should be used to stabilize it.
The landscaping wall will be stronger if it slopes back against the area to be retained. It is common practice in many areas to slope the wall as much as 5-6 inches for each foot of rise. As the wall rises soil should be packed into any air pockets in the wall and behind the wall.
A landscaping wall can also be used as a wall garden. This will make it more beautiful and in many cases will also make it stronger because of the plants root systems. There are many green plants and flowers that will work well for this purpose. Check with your local nursery.
Mortared Landscaping Walls
Mortared landscaping walls are more permanent and actually easier to build than dry walls. The mortar holds the stones together so it is not as important to make the stones match. A mixture of 1 part Portland cement to 2 parts sand makes for a good mortar.
Apply mortar liberally to create a bed for each stone that is added. Areas between stones should be well filled with gravel or smaller stones.
Tight dry walls and any walls using mortar require drainage pipes. Imbed the drainage pipes around six inches from the lower ground level of the wall at approximately two foot intervals.
Whether a dry wall, or masonry, the top of the wall needs protection. This can be accomplished using broad, flat stones (such as slate) as capstones for your landscaping wall.
