Building Stone Retaining Wall

Building Stone Retaining Wall

Retaining walls are used to create a transition from one level of the ground to another. By cutting into a slope and allowing for level ground both above and below the wall, retaining walls increase the amount of flat, usable ground in a yard. Building a retaining wall is suitable for DIYers as long as the wall is a maximum of 3 feet tall (in most areas). Anything taller should be handled by professionals.

The easiest way to build a stone retaining wall is to use the dry-stack method that requires no mortar between stones and does not need a concrete footing as mortared walls do. Dry-stack walls also drain well, allowing water to pass through the wall itself. This helps reduce hydrostatic pressure imposed by wet soil behind the wall, which is the most common cause of retaining wall failure. Backfilling the wall with rock promotes drainage through the wall and prevents soil from pushing through the cracks in the wall's stones.

[antonysimpson]

Lovely wall. Around where I live there are so many walls built with mortar like this one as retaining walls that have been build very solid but even though they are very strong the water from the soil pushes them over. I can see a couple of drainage ducts in your wall but if they get blocked or the soil behind the wall does not filter water through it efficiently then water pressure will build up. This pressure will most probably and eventually push the wall over. Dry stone walling will hold it back much better, as it lets water pass through, or only use limited amounts of mortar leaving plenty of wall for the water to percolate through.😊

[waltermattei]

I would definitely use this technique for a fence, but not a retaining wall. And I would wet the stones for better adhesion to the mortar. Super dry stones or tiles sometimes don't bed and stick that well.

[Горец-вб]

Респект мастерам!Камень очень хорош.Сам много лет занимался этим.Осколками даже штанины сечет.И ноги постоянно в ссадинах и порезах.Зато красотища!Удачи!

[Светлана-тоя]

Мастер-замечательный, смотреть, как работает, одно удовольствие, а конечный результат-восхищение!!!

[kevinemery]

Wow that's some beautiful craftsmanship. They should teach people how to build

[warpspeed]

I used to think that for retaining walls the stone should be laid perpendicular to wall direction and not standing up but laid on it's biggest side. Also that each over-stone covers the junction between two lower stones to prevent cracking. I hope that your iron reinforcement can tie all this together and that the soil pressure is not too much...

[jeffreybresnahan]

Just moved up to the west coast of Scotland, and have a Granite stone boundary wall to rebuild.
This video will help me immensely.
Exceptional Stone Mason's skills!!!! 👍🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿🇮🇪🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿

[КактотакКактотак-йт]

Мужики какие вы молодцы, дай Аллах вам, крепкого здоровья!!!

[gary]

What is the mortar mix? Man this is a great looking wall. Perfect stone, perfect joints.

[YenniHope]

This is beautiful but I wonder if this would work in cold climates or would it break during the very cold winters.

[alikinsergey]

Many people before told about problems with foundation (it's missing), drainage and others... And I agree totally.
But I also noticed that these guys have (probably) reserved eyes in a pocket: they beat stones so strong and brave... But without glasses...
But final result is nice)

[larrystanley]

Beautiful, I was a Brick/ Block layer ALL my life but Stone work is 100% More Beautiful than brick or Block by far. I've done both. Good job my 👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍👍

[robbwood]

Nothing but respect for that type of craftmanship. Well done!

[vladimirvladimirovich]

Великолепный вид гранитных стен !
Прелесть и прочность !
С уважением к каменщикам.
Из Сибири, Владимир !
Мой город - Nizhnevartovsk !

[НиколайЯблонский-рд]

Молодцы! Так раньше строили немцы на века!

[sparkyperson]

EXCELLENT technique. Fabulous results...

[mrSkandalpolisen]

The wall looks nice but there's not very much retaining in it.
I wouldn't sleep well in that close by house if it's heavy raining outside.
A proper retaining wall contains retaining stones (or some kind of anchors) that reaches at least 0, 3-0, 4 meters into the soil behind.
With this size of wall, there should be at least one such a retaining stone every 2 meter at every 3 layers of stones.

[barnabyaprobert]

Magnificent! Good use of "weepholes" which is something many forget to install.

[deso]

This is pure art!To work like this, you must be talented, gifted...Master craftwork, genious

[alzathoth]

that would take a lot of energy! i get tired just watching these master craftsmen. BRAVO gentlemen! AMAZING WORK! :)