Is your yard hilly? Explore the landscaping tip that resists soil erosion and beautifies your backyard, and how easy it is to DIY with the appropriate materials.
Retaining walls reduce soil erosion, terrace steep slopes, and provide landscape focal points. They are some of the most common hilly terrain solutions! Well-built retaining walls turn inclines into garden space.
DO Select A Workable Wall Material
The materials used to build retaining walls can range from bricks and natural stones to pressure-treated railroad ties and poured concrete. Specifically designed prefabricated blocks for brick retaining walls are a good choice for do-it-yourselfers.
These blocks have a locking flange along the bottom edge that securely attaches each row of blocks. These blocks, which come in a variety of textures and earth tones, are available at a wide variety of home improvement stores and garden centers, such as Belgard retaining wall blocks.
DON’T Forget To Check With The Authorities
Your neighbors may be affected by the retaining wall’s impact on the natural flow of water, which is why some municipalities require homeowners to get a permit before work begins. Before constructing a retaining wall, you should check the property for drainage issues and submit the blueprints for the wall.
DO Stack Bricks Slightly Backward
The soil pressure is less likely to push outward a wall that leans into the soil it holds compared to a plain old vertical wall. Make sure that for every foot of rise (height), your retaining wall slopes at least 1 inch.
Thanks to retaining wall blocks, this “step-back” construction is a breeze to implement. Each block’s bottom locking flange prevents the top blocks from being pushed outward by guiding it to click into position slightly below the lower block.
DON’T Forget To Allow For Drainage
A retaining wall’s worst enemy is groundwater. Soils of the clay variety expand when saturated, placing undue stress on the wall’s reverse side. While constructing the retaining wall, make sure to account for drainage to prevent the need to fix a failing wall.
Groundwater may be diverted if crushed stone was used to backfill the area behind the blocks and a flexible perforated drain pipe, also referred to as “drain tile,” was placed at the base of the wall.
Groundwater can be directed to the two ends of the wall for drainage using the perforated pipe. After that, the drainpipe should terminate at opposite wall corners; to make them less noticeable, you can cover them with crushed stone.
DO Backfill Correctly
Once the drainpipe is set up, use sand or pea gravel to backfill the area behind the blocks. Either way, water will be able to trickle down to the drainpipe located at the wall’s base. To achieve the greatest effects, top off each course of blocks with a few inches of the material, then compact it with a hand tamper.
To make sure the backfill is packed tightly and can withstand the strain of the earth behind the wall, tamp it every six inches or so.