Construction Tips for Retaining Walls

Building Codes

• Any construction of a retaining wall begins with a vital tip: Review your city's building codes even before you begin planning. Most communities will have building regulations in place that must be adhered to, and discovering the specifics of these codes is easier than it is to tear down your wall and rebuild it to meet the codes.

Steep Slopes

• Steep slopes require that the construction of a retaining wall feature walls with sturdier foundations than walls constructed on a gentler slope. One way to go about this is to create a large concrete wall, and another is to construct a series of brick walls that serve to divide the burden of carrying the load.

Natural Stone

• Natural stone offers some of the greatest versatility because it can be used to create very low walls with raised beds or higher walls. When using natural stone to build a high wall, mortar must be used to keep the stones in place. Uncut stones are preferable for building a retaining wall without mortar.

Drainage

• The purpose of most retaining walls is to hold back water, which can only be accomplished with adequate drainage. The easiest method for ensuring good drainage is to dig a ditch or gutter that leads the water away. Water that flows down a hill can effectively be collected using a gravel backfill in which the water escapes through weak holes in the wall or down a drain pipe.

Raised Beds

• Plan for the construction to include a raised bed to create a more aesthetically appealing transition from one garden to another. The addition of a raised garden to the design of your wall can help ease the burden of some gardening tasks by making reaching plants for weeding, cultivating and watering easier. The very same materials used to construct the wall itself can usually be used for building the raised bed.

Material Options

• The materials you choose for your retaining wall should be chosen only partly for the strength they will provide for the purposes of retention. Building a high wall out of stone is more laborious than building a wall the same height using wood because of the variance in weight. Looks can also play a part in choosing materials; railroad timbers will give your yard a much more rustic feeling than concrete blocks. When strength really is the only consideration you think is necessary, remember that poured concrete creates a monolithic structure that no other material can match.