Cheapest method of non-visible small retaining wall?

[JDub]

Need to build a small retaining wall only about 400 high at its hightest point, 7m long.
A new raised board walk will butt up against it and you will step straight off the board walk onto the grassed area.

So therefore the retaining wall will not be visible under the lip of the board walk. Pic attached.

Cheapest and easiest option?

Stacked rock?
Bessa blocks?

BTW I have built a large approx 25m wall in the past using the C+M brick retaining wall products but I dont want to go to that expense this time given you wont be able to see the wall.....

Cheers
Joel

[echnidna]

sleepers

[Graham99]

Hi there,

I am building a retaining wall in the back yard to bring the whole back of the section up 0.5m, and as above I have gone for sleepers to do the job. The yard falls from the house to the back fence so I am retaining the three sides. Now it's just a case of digging, cementing , and bolting.

Graham

[bitingmidge]

A few star pickets and some old super 6 sheets would do it for me.

P

[woodbe]

What about those weldmesh cages the highways use?

They build a box out of mesh, then fill it with suitable sized rocks, put the lid on.

Rinse, repeat. It seems like a neat solution, and once they are in, they actually don't look too bad. Maybe it's a bit big for the backyard?

woodbe.

[journeyman Mick]

What about those weldmesh cages the highways use?

They build a box out of mesh, then fill it with suitable sized rocks, put the lid on.

Rinse, repeat. It seems like a neat solution, and once they are in, they actually don't look too bad. Maybe it's a bit big for the backyard?

woodbe.

They're called gabion (sp?) baskets.

Mick

[Buzza]

Sleepers.

Use RSJ uprights, or channel back to back, and put your sleepers into these, then back fill.

Buzza.

[Pulse]

.... find a hilly area, find a nice looking retaining wall, reverse your trailer up, carefully unstack into your trailer and simply restack at your place...

thats a joke...

sleepers would be pretty cheap, but I'd try to find some second hand material somewhere ... that would probably be the cheapest

Cheers
Pulse

[JDub]

A few star pickets and some old super 6 sheets would do it for me.

P

Do you think star pickets be adequate to hold a couple of sleepers? Saves digging more post holes than I have too?

[tcns]

Well I used bessa blocks to bacause I am going to extend my deck out to that area like you are and I don't really want to have to do it again.

Here are some photos

Tom

[bitingmidge]

Do you think star pickets be adequate to hold a couple of sleepers? Saves digging more post holes than I have too?

JDub, I was joking (sort of). I have done that sort of thing in the past when I was rough and cheap. (Now at least I'm expensive.)

The trouble with sleepers is that they will rot and you WILL have to replace them.

I haven't read the whole thread sorry, but simple is good. At that height why not just batter the ground 1:1 and stabilize it with a slurry of concrete a couple of inches thick? The concrete isn't structural, it's just there to stop the bank eroding.

Cheers,
P

[JDub]

Gday Tom,

Yep looks like you are doing something similar, have you just capped the bessa blocks with Pavers or are they some sort of capper designed for Bessa blocks?

Midge,

Yer I was sort of joking as well (well sort of ) I hate digging holes

[tcns]

Jdub,

Yep you are spot on we used the Boral "Heathstone" capping stones and glued them on to the top of the filled bessa blocks with silastic (translucent roof and gutter silicon). They look fantastic - we have a heathstone retaining wall back further in the yard - we did that so it matches the wall, I have attached another photo I don't have a better shot on me - that wall along the back is finished now and the same stones that I glued to the bessa bricks sit on the top of the heathstone blocks to "cap" them

Here is the boral link with some better shots http://www.boral.com.au/odg/heathstone.asp?Aud=odg


Regards
Tom

[JDub]

Yer thanks Tom,

I used a similar product for my wall out the front (C+M) though. Pics below, (have since finished the fencing etc).

Didnt think of using the same caps in the backyard, would tie in nicely....

Havnt had any experience with brick/bessa laying but I guess theres only one way to learn

[tcns]

neither had I, my Father in Law had and he helped,

poured a 500x200 footing used some form work to get it level and just measure down from a string line along the whole lenght to get the levels nearly right.

Let that set over a week or so, then motored the first layer on allowing for a certain amount of motor, then did the second layer, I had layed the bricks out offset from one layer to the next, was a pretty average job but it worked out ok. I then core filled them all with concrete and smoothed off the top as flat as I could.

After a few weeks to let that all go off, I then glued the capping stones on there

Worked out pretty well - a cement mixer was a must as well as a ready supply of slaves .. oops I mean friends

Tom