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Kansas City homes & Gardens - Live Well

How to Build a Simple Retaining Wall

6/13/2019

8 Comments

 
By Guest Author Richard White
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Retaining walls are a great way to add a new visual element to your backyard as well as provide additional space for flowers to be planted or a water feature to be installed. With a little work, some concrete blocks, gravel, concrete adhesive glue and a few other tools, you can have a retaining wall installed in no time.

First, you’ll need to design and determine the shape, size and desired location for the wall.  One way you can do this is to drive long wooden poles into the ground every eight feet or so to lay out the shape and size.  Then you can use a string tape measure to create a level line of the height you want your wall to be.

At this point, my colleague tells me his landscaping company normally digs a trench that is approximately eight inches in depth and a little larger than the width of the concrete blocks that you’ll be using to build the height of the wall. Add about four inches of gravel to the trench and tamp the area down to as level as possible.

After you've done so, lay your first row of concrete blocks following your desired shape outline. Make sure that they are aligned with the flange at the front. You’ll most likely have to move some of the gravel underneath the bricks to level out the difference created by the flange. Use a level to check the row as you go and make any changes using a rubber mallet so you don’t damage the bricks. When it is how you want it, fill the holes in the bricks with gravel.

You’ll need to lay a drainage pipe at the base of the row of bricks with one end inside and the other end leading to where ever you want water to drain into. Make sure to place mesh at the end so that nothing can get inside and clog the pipe.
Repeat the process for brick rows until you reach the desired height that you outlined with the stakes and string. When you are almost at the top, squeeze some concrete adhesive glue on the bricks and place capstones on the top. Fill your newly created wall with dirt, flowers, shrubs or whatever else your heart desires and admire your handiwork! 

While not rocket science, depending on the materials and the size of the wall you are building, it can be laborious constructing a retaining wall start to finish. Either hire the neighbours kid to help with the lifting or get an experienced landscaper or handyman service that can provide both some elbow grease and some expertise to ensure it's done right.

8 Comments
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8/6/2019 05:03:41 am

Gardening requires a lot of effort, I will tell you that. If you are not ready to work your body to its limit, then do not even think about it. I have seen a lot of people go the path of gardening, and most of them just quit half way. I am not saying all of this to discourage you, what I want is for you to choose a path that you can take. Gardening is not for the weak hearted.

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8/6/2019 02:49:49 pm

Thank you Richard for this informative post. Good call for highlighting the importance of placing a mesh into the drainage pipes - DIY jobs with improperly done drainage (or even no drainage at all!) are shockingly common. Which is of course a bad idea unless you live in one of the places where it's sunny 365 days a year!

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9/3/2019 08:29:33 pm

Retaining walls prevent down slope movement and provide support for vertical or near- vertical grade changes. Concrete retaining walls can serve aesthetic and landscape design functions as well. It is constructed at upstream of a road formation whereas it is different from breast wall in which it is constructed at its downstream, a wall built to sustain the face of a natural bank of earth. We also use retaining walls to make a beautiful landscape in our front and back yards.

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10/2/2019 05:26:49 am

An amazing article Retaining walls are a great way to add a new visual element to your backyard as well as provide additional space for flowers to be planted or a water feature to be installed.It’s nice to read a quality blog post.

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10/14/2019 05:07:55 am

I can gain the knowledge from your site which is really interesting How to Build a Simple Retaining Wall.I would like to comment your post.You done a great work here.Thank you so much for sharing valuable information.

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10/18/2019 09:57:41 pm

"I really appreciate your work especially the research part how to build a simple retaining wall of it which made the whole point very easy to understand.I’m happy that you shared this helpful information with us. Please keep us up to date like this. Thanks for sharing.
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6/28/2020 07:11:09 am

I think this is an informative post and it is very beneficial and knowledgeable. Therefore, I would like to thank you for the endeavors that you have made in writing this article. All the content is absolutely well-researched

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7/3/2020 05:42:10 am

It is a pleasure worth reading this article as it provided me lots of information on how to build a simple retaining wall. Here you will get to know in detail about the topic which are in demand. I enjoyed alot while reading this article and would recommend other too.

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