Make the Most of Your Slopes with Stone Retaining Walls

If you have steep slopes on your property, this can be wasted space. It can be difficult to plant, and erosion is a concern when the wetter months arrive. Retaining walls are not only a way to combat erosion; they can be used to transform slopes and hills into useable spaces. Here are some ideas to make the most of your slopes with retaining walls made from natural stone.

Tiered Garden

Using two or more retaining walls, you can tier your slope and create one or more flat spaces for planting. The natural stone walls create the perfect edging for a stunning rose garden or a bed of wild flowers. You can turn a unused hill into a beautiful landscape for your front or backyard that will be the envy of your neighbors.

Hill Patio

Another option is to use retaining walls to create a patio to overlook your property. This can be a nice place to add a fire pit for evening marshmallow roasting, created with flagstone or fieldstone for a natural look to blend in with the surrounding plant life. By night it can be a place for “camping” at home, while during the day it can be a beautiful hardscape that enhances your nearby slope.

Natural stone retaining walls can add depth and interesting edges to your property, while protecting your property from erosion and creating useable spaces. Visit your local quarry to find the right natural stones to use to build your retaining walls to revamp your slopes and hills. Your local supplier can give you tips on the ways to use natural stone and refer you to local hardscape contractors that can help build your new useable slope.

Posted on behalf of:
Alliance Stone
5420 Campground Rd
Cumming, GA 30040
(404) 759-0617

3 Excellent Options for Retaining Walls

Are you planning on adding a retaining wall on your property? These walls can have functional and aesthetic benefits, from reducing erosion and mudslide on slopes, to creating a clean, sculpted appearance for your yard. One of the decisions you need to make when creating a retaining wall is the best material for the job. Here are three excellent choices for retaining wall materials and their benefits.

  1. Modular block. For easy building, modular block can be a great option for retaining walls. These blocks are made to fit together and stack, creating a tight, solid wall for your project. They can be square, rectangle or curved, depending on your needs, with a lower cost than some other options.
  2. Fieldstone. For natural style to your retaining wall, fieldstones can be an excellent option. Since the sizes and shapes in fieldstones vary, they do take more work and mortar to hold them in place. However, the beauty of natural stone can add value to your home and cannot be surpassed for aesthetics.
  3. Pavers. Pavers and modular block are similar, but pavers come with more color options and are easier to use than natural stone due to their uniform shapes. They can offer some of the beauty and design options of natural stone, with the ease of blocks, making them a nice in between option that is usually less expensive than natural stone.

Get the best choice for improving your landscaping with a retaining wall by visiting your local quarry or landscape supplier. They can help you decide which material will work best for your project and budget, while creating a beautiful retaining wall that will perform the function you need on your property.

Posted on behalf of:
Alliance Stone
5420 Campground Rd
Cumming, GA 30040
(404) 759-0617

5 Factors to Consider for Retaining Walls

Retaining walls can add support, beauty and function to your landscaping, making them a popular hardscaping project. However, this is a project that needs some planning and preparation before you jump in. Before you head to the landscaping supply store for materials, here are some factors to consider for your new retaining wall.

  1. Weight. If your retaining will be used for functional support for a slope or hill, you need to determine the weight and pressure that will be against the wall.
  2. Foundation. All retaining walls need a solid, level foundation for the best results. A leveled area with compacted sub-base or gravel should be used in the foundation, with stable, heavy materials used at the bottom of the wall.
  3. Materials. Retaining walls can be made from wood, concrete or dry-laid stone. Natural stone or pavers are the most popular, offering strength, durability and beauty for the project.
  4. Drainage. Many retaining walls fail due to water pressure caused from inefficient drainage. Gravel fill in the foundation or piping to allow water behind the wall to drain can prevent drainage failure issues down the road for your retaining wall.
  5. Slope of wall. If building a retaining wall for soil or erosion support, sloping the wall back into the hillside can garner better results, referred to as a batter or cant.

Creating a plan for your retaining wall can reduce the chance of premature failure. Decide the dimensions, materials and design before you make your trip to the landscape supplier in your area. This will save you time and ensure you get everything you need for supplies before you begin building your new retaining wall.

Posted on behalf of:
Alliance Stone
5420 Campground Rd
Cumming, GA 30040
(404) 759-0617

Retaining Wall Types

Stone retaining walls come in an endless array of shapes, sizes, styles and types. They can be purely decorative, or they can combine beauty and function by helping to level an area, support a sloping area, help with erosion control, break up a section of yard into smaller areas, create a garden area, and many more uses.

Common types of retaining walls include gravity, semi gravity, cantilevered, and counterfort.  A gravity retaining wall relies on its weight to hold back the soil.  These are constructed in a shallow cone shape with the base wider than the top.  In some cases the wall is angles slightly back toward to help improve its stability.  These types of walls can be made from dry stacked, mortarless stone although the height will be limited.

A semi gravity wall is essentially a gravity wall that has been reinforced with steel rods.  These are a little stronger than pure gravity walls and need no additional reinforcement.

A cantilevered retaining wall has a base or footer that extends under the soil.  Viewed from the end, a cantilevered wall has an L shape with the foot of the L buried underground.  These walls can be thinner than a gravity wall and rely on using the weight of the soil on the footer to hold the wall in place.

Counterfort walls are similar to cantilevered walls except that they supports that tie the end of the footer to back of the wall.  These supports are buried underground so counterfort walls look the same as cantilevered walls.  If the supports are placed on the face of the wall where they would be visible, they are called buttresses.

Anything beyond a low, dry stacked gravity wall should be designed by an engineer.  Otherwise you are risking potential serious injury due to collapse of the wall.