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Welcome to out blog, Menfranco general blog,
and this post, building a garden rock wall
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Building a garden rock retaining wall
Building a
garden rock retaining wall
Dear readers, in our last post we have been talking about
how to build a mortar-less retaining wall, in this post we are going to talk
about how to build a garden rock wall. To build a garden rock wall as shown in
the picture here is a lot harder than you think, and you need to know how to go
about it, you see for a start you need to have a good eye to see how the rocks
that you have can fit together to make a wall. There are a few ways how to do
this depending how tall the wall is going to be and lots of other things as
well.
You see if you have
only a very low wall you can just lay one single rock one after another, or two
rocks one on top of another making sure that you choose the best face to show
at the top and at the front, the other part of the rock can be hidden ether in
the ground, or at the back since you are backfilling behind the wall; in this
case it is not necessary to use any concrete, as the stones can be laid dry,
but if you want you can use concrete as well.
To start with dig all the grass and loose soil even if your
wall is going to be low. If the wall is going to be in a place where the ground
is slopping down make sure that you dig deep enough and reach solid natural
ground at least, so that the wall you are building can sit a couple of inches
or a lot more than that into this firm ground, So that your wall is not going
to slope down the first heavy rain you have after building it.
As we said in this case we are only building a low stone
wall and we are not going to use anything to bind the wall together, so there
is no cement or anything else between the stones, in this case because there is
nothing to stop the rain water to run between the stones you don’t need to
worry about drainage. You see one of the greatest problems with retaining walls
is the water that can build behind them, the water and wet soil puts pressure
on the wall and if the water cannot get out easily the wall is going to fail.
Now it could be helpful to have a look at some stone
retaining wall, and for this reason in mind I have found this link in the
Internet; so, have a look at the pictures in this link; www.australianrockwalls.com.au/ there are several types of stone
walls, now you can start thinking how and why they have been built that way;
there is also a video that you could see.
Now what we have been talking here was about a very low
garden retaining wall, but what about if you require a different retaining
wall, because of some works you are going to do in the yard since you need more
space, so, let us start to talk about this new wall that we require and how we
decide to built it.
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Deciding to
build your own rock wall
You have been doing some works in the backyard as you needed
more space, you wanted to build a car port and also put a trampoline for the
kids. You have done the digging and are satisfied that everything is going to
fit easily; but now you have this bank that stands almost vertical in the
backyard, it looks ugly and you know that when the first heavy rain comes it is
going to start washing it down and worse still it may collapse. So you think of
building a retaining wall, perhaps a stone rock wall would be good to hold the
soil up.
For this reason you have had a couple of quote for this job
and had a good talk to the contractors as you did not want to spend more money
that was strictly necessary, they did their best but still you cannot afford to
pay the full price, beside that you found that if you lay a dry stone wall, ether
you have to use stones that have been cut at the quarry and they cost a lot, or
you have to have a rock wall with a wider base and this is going to take away
some of the space you created when you dug, so really you need to think about
it.
So you have decided to build the stone retaining wall
yourself, what you have decided is that you are going to build an hybrid stone
wall, which you believe would do the job without costing too much and also it
would not take too much space; therefore, you have already looked for a rock
supplier and ask for prices of the different materials you might need, because
you think that you can afford it if you do the job yourself.
By pure chance you have learned from the blokes that have
given you the prices how many cubic meters of rocks you might need and another
few things that you were not so sure before; well done sometimes in the
building game things work out this way, you learn a bit from here a bit from
there and then you can decide what to do with the information you have
collected. There is nothing wrong for doing this as long as you do not do it
purposely, but if it does not work out, then it is okay to use what you have learned
from them.
I have to say that it has been done to me many times and
that I have done this myself; not only on quoting but also in buying something
new, if I have to buy something expensive that I have never used before, I go
to at least three places and inquiry about it, by asking the right questions
not only I learn how much it is going to cost me, but I have learned also how
to use whatever I was going to buy in the first place, of course I end up
buying from one of them what I wanted to buy in the first place; sometimes I
call this let me go first to spy and then to buy, I know that some of these
people are going to feel a bit hurt, for using their time for nothing, but so
what, sometimes you win and sometimes you lose, as I have said it has been done
to me as well and I have felt a bit hurt, when I had to spend some time working
out a price to build something, and at the end I did not get the job, so I
spent all that time for nothing, but that is life and we should accept the
outcome whichever way it goes. Anyhow I believe that this post is already long
enough, so we will go back to building a rock wall in our next post, building
the hybrid rock wall.
See you soon.
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This is:
Menfranco general blog,
Building a garden rock wall
IS TO BE CONTINUED;
Next time with, Building the hybrid rock wall
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Some personal and religious links:
Some personal and religious links:
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