Retaining wall DIY

[Anonymous No.2795640]

I must be retarded. I cannot find a good guide on how to make a wall like picrel without the wood part. Specifically, a 2foot cobblestone retaining wall, utilizing mortar or cement. It won't be very load-bearing, 80% decoration 20% to create a clean terraced area.
I've looked up fieldstone, cobblestone, riverstone, and they all do psuedo-walls with fake thin rocks mortared onto wood.
Any advice, or should I just go with brick/timber/combination? Good stones are too expensive for me

[Anonymous No.2795642]

>>2795640
Stack rocks as high as you want. Mortar is optional

[Anonymous No.2795658]

You literally just stack rocks on top of each other, what's the difficulty here? Your ancestors figured this out on their own.

[Anonymous No.2795686]

>>2795640
if i was tasked with it, i'd do them as precast panels flat on the ground. build forms out of 2x4s on edge 2ft by 8 or 10ft. flop them down on visqueen and put a piece of medium hog wire midplane for reinforcement. fill 3/4 up with concrete and bed your rocks.
layout your wall with deadheads at the panel joints. set the panels and bolt them to the stanchions. backfill the wall with dirt and roberts your mothers brother

[Anonymous No.2795693]

>>2795686
Do I need rebar anywhere, or just mesh? or a thin rebar matrix. The wall will be 30 feet long, can I work one base layer at a time and work my way up, then cap it off with cut stones?
Also, every guide says to use a drainage pipe with the holes facing downwards. Don't I want them pointing up at an angle (or in every direction for that matter) so water can seep from the dirt into the pipe and redirected out to the yard? Do i have to lay the pipe on a downward slope too?

[Anonymous No.2795709]

>>2795693
>rebar
generally you use as much steel as your willing to spend money on. a grid of #3 bar might be less than hog wire
>build upwards
i meant precast the panels as a facade piece to lean up against bulkheads cut back into the terrace. make the panels as big as you have equipment to move and place
>drain pipe
i've only ever put in the perforated plastic tile. i'd wager holes on the bottom would be to keep the pipe from filling with dirt. water only flows downhill and has to go somewhere, so plan out drainage accordingly

[Anonymous No.2795907]

>>2795686
jesus christ

>>2795693
a drain pipe is for a retaining wall, as in, a wall which retains, as in, the ground is much higher on one side than the other.
op states 80% decorative. whats is the truth?
a 2ft wall retaining 2 inches isnt worth worrying about. a 2ft retainer is bordering on civil engineering.

>>2795640
stone walling is actually pretty advanced, dry stone wallers spend a long time mastering the craft because its more of an art and looking at what you have and how to use it, its practice, not something you can learn from a textbook.
cob stones as pictured are far less common, only really practical with mortar.
anyway its basically just a case of look at a hole, look for a stone, see how it fits, mortar it in. rinse and repeat. keep any nice flats for the top course. the thicker you go (vs stone size) the easier it gets because theres more room to play with width variations

[Anonymous No.2796028]

>>2795640

Are you sure you want to build a retaining wall, and not just a fence? If so, the word you need to look for is 'fence mason', which is a mason who specializes in making fences out of stone. Rock fences and rock walls are completely different things, which is why you are probably running into trouble finding the right information. The traditional rock fence is done dry, without any kind of cement or mortar and can theoertically be build with just a hammer and rocks.

If you really want to build a traditional rock fence, a book I would recommend is 'Building and repairing kentucky rock fences" by Richard N. Tufnell. Although I think its now out of print...

here are two websites you can also reference for more information and possible publications

usa resource: https://www.drystone.org/about-us

uk counterpart: https://www.dswa.org.uk/

[Anonymous No.2796042]

>>2795907
>>2796028
https://youtu.be/lDhRF57JMuI?t=124
It will be similar to this. I'll buy the rocks from https://hammondfarms.com/product-category/decorative-mi-stone-and-boulders/

I'll check out that book. I think I have a much better idea of what to aim for now. thanks guys

[Anonymous No.2796043]

>>2796042
>michigan
i'm a west coast fag, so clueless about freezing, but won't you have to consider frost heave to make sure it doesn't get shoved apart in a couple winters

[Anonymous No.2796044]

>>2796043
yes
that is my next concern to figure out. something about digging deep enough and stamping the dirt, then asphalt layer, and enough support for the weight of stone, with lime in the mortar to make it malleable.

[Anonymous No.2796053]

>>2795640
>2foot cobblestone retaining wall,
Going to be washed away in the heavy rain storm.

[Anonymous No.2796060]

>>2796042
please dont follow this example its retarded and dangerous
the foundation strip should be wider than the wall. the purpose of a foundation is to spread load, it cant do that if its as narrow as the structure on top of it. it should be at least a foot wider. at least.
you dont need rebar. rebar supplies tensile strength where concrete lacks. the problem with it is it soaks up water and rusts, the rust makes it expand, the expansion cracks the concrete then it all falls down. romans didnt use rebar 2000 years ago some of their shit is still there. government puts rebar in highwar bridges to make construction economical, they have to be replaced every 20-30 years.
the wall in the video is retaining 3-4 ft of dirt. this should absolutely be designed by a competent engineer accounting for the type of soil and moisture and all kinds of shit you dont just throw shit up like this it will fall and kill someone.
guy is absolutely taking the piss lol laying maybe 4 or 5 stones a day must have taken years to do that. not ideal to over and over and over again work a new live edge into cured or green concrete so that thing is going to miss a huge amount of potential strength because of his laziness.
also note no drainiage. even a short wall put a french drain or something along the bottom so it can drain to the side if you dot want through drains.
>>2796044
dont build a stone wall onto asphault
>>2796043
if this is a serious concern then you really must start to take this project seriously.

[Anonymous No.2796066]

>>2795640
just line up some ecoblocks and let your kid glue rocks to the front with a caulk gun of adhesive

[Anonymous No.2796080]

>>2796066
that was one option with the stone glue+cut stones method. Looks clean but I'd rather go with timber at that point, it's half as expensive.
>>2796053
how so? is mortar/cement not waterproofable? How is england full of 500+ year old stone walls made with hundreds of different methods.

[Anonymous No.2796095]

>>2796080
1 they are square stone not round cobbles
2 they arent retaining shit

[Anonymous No.2796173]

>>2796080
>How is england full of 500+ year old stone walls made with hundreds of different methods.

in a dry rock fence, the core is densely packed tight with lose rock and soil and the whole thing is held together with gravity and pressure.

[Anonymous No.2796174]

>>2796042
>buy the rocks

[Anonymous No.2796177]

>>2796080
>How is england full of 500+ year old stone walls made with hundreds of different methods.

in a dry rock fence, the core is densely packed tight with lose rock and the whole thing is held together with gravity and pressure. it takes a significant force or large amount of eroding to break this balance.

[Anonymous No.2796190]

>>2795640
>good stones too expensive
Then why dont you want to use the Verblender?
If you know some masonry you can just eyeball it and dont forget to clean the "Fuge" afterwards
If you want the training wheels you build a coverage of wood and just lay them inside of it and then afterwards wash out all the Fugen.
For dry walls you have to use small gravel instead of mortar and the rule is to never lay a stone on a pointy end and try to find some sort of bond that works, you can hit them with a hammer to give you a more useful shape.
Either way dont forget your foundation, it doesnt have to be huge, even a sauberkeitsschicht is OK but put some gravel underneath so it wont be raised due to frost.
Also place a copper nail on top of it so it washes out a little poison every time it rains, this will keep plants from growing on your pretty wall.

[Anonymous No.2796419]

>>2795907
>stone walling is actually pretty advanced, dry stone wallers spend a long time mastering the craft because its more of an art and looking at what you have and how to use it, its practice, not something you can learn from a textbook.

I agree with you
I am a master bricklayer, i too dont have alot of experience in this.
However we all gotta start somewhere, so as you say getting practice is the key

[Anonymous No.2796465]

>>2795640
Make sure you stack it at a backwards lean, and make sure you install deadmen.

[Anonymous No.2796466]

>>2796177
Very nice diagram, anon. Saved.

[Anonymous No.2796597]

>>2795640
Every day I say to myself
>today’s the day, I don’t do a >do Americans really…?
Post, but then the Americans come along and post stuff like this:
> I've looked up fieldstone, cobblestone, riverstone, and they all do psuedo-walls with fake thin rocks mortared onto wood.
A wall out of wood with rocks glued onto them? Do Americans really…?
But besides that, I’m sure n a somewhat similar situation to OP. I wanna replace some ugly, hollow concrete blocks wall in my garden with drystone and that’s not that easy as you’d think if you want it to look good and be stable, even for only half a meter. And it needs a literal shitton of rocks. If I’d simply pick them up from my closest riverbed, I’d need about 10 drives with my car to maybe have enough stones.

[Anonymous No.2796612]

>>2796597
https://youtu.be/e5FAFqwmMfw?t=234
i was referring to this one. Isn't it weird that the "rock wall" is rocks cut in half then stuck to wood?
Also I've decided to stick with a lumber redwood wall. 18" tall, I simply don't have the leeway foundation for rock/stone. 5" max.
Should I stain/treat/waterproof the wood after the wall is constructed, or do it to 3 sides of every 4x4 before construction? you want the ends, any cut part, and any exposed part treated, with at least one side untreated so the wood can breathe, but not sure the best way.
And what should I cap off the wall with? a slightly wider and rounded wood to make it look nice? What about the bottom where it meets the concrete patio, can I use some sort of caulking or crowning?

[Anonymous No.2796688]

How tall are you going? Anything over 5ft requires a PE stamp

[Anonymous No.2796991]

>>2795640
Get river rocks, use concrete. I've built one before but planning on doing a better one this time and for it to be a retaining wall. Remember to clean the concrete from the face while the concrete is wet, and to use a board on the back to keep the concrete in place

[Anonymous No.2796994]

If you're retaining soil you'd want a gabion wall or something. Any wall retaining soil over about a foot high needs reinforcement if it's a masonry wall since masonry has no tensile strength.

You could put in a gabion wall or geotextile retaining system and then stack rocks in front of it I guess.

t. engineer

[Anonymous No.2797230]

>>2796991
damn nice wall anon, that's exactly what I want to make. where'd you get the stones from? there's no claim you can get them from easily here

[Anonymous No.2797236]

>>2797230
I get mine from creeks, it's hard work carrying them uphill.

[Anonymous No.2797260]

>>2797230
find a concrete plant nearby that's along a river. they use river rock for aggregate but only up to 2" or so. everything else they mine goes in the overburden pile at the screen plant. you might be able to get loads of bigger round rock for basically the price of trucking