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Landscape Design

HELP! How to make a round retaining wall even on both sides

16 years ago

Hey guys,

Completely new to gardening and landscape. I am hoping you can help. I am building a retaining wall in front of my townhouse and need you experts in giving me tips on how to create a perfect half circle (10ft diameter). I am afraid my eye balling skills will lead me to a lop-sided circle.

Your guidance to a perfect circle is appreciated!

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Comments (7)

duluthinbloomz4
16 years ago
Is this another instance where a stake pounded in the middle of your yard with a 5' string attached will give you the perfect 10' semi-circle? Soft chalk or a can of spray paint in the hand holding the string will leave you a guideline to follow for your retaining wall base.
skilletrx
Original Author
16 years ago
any other recommendations? I'm thinking about picking up stakes, but when i get the lines up, i have to dig underneath it right? Any advice on how I can go about it without digging out my stakes? I guess I could take the radius + and add on an extra foot or so to pad the radius to create a padded perimeter. any thoughts or tips? Thanks in advance!!
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You will need to dig down so that the bottom of the wall (which is the bottom of the footing) is below the frost line. Maybe a regional forum could help you find out what frost depth is. A footing is like a nice thick sidewalk that is created for the wall to sit on. (8" thickness depth would be good. 6" might be OK.) You're building a retaining wall so keep in mind that it needs to be sturdier than a free-standing wall. A footing ought to protrude beyond the footprint of the wall itself, by about 8" all the way around. So that's a total width of 24". If the present excavation only allows for the wall, you would need to excavate farther into the hill, also allowing for the space occupied by the form work. The wall will not look good if the block slopes. Instead, it should be level and to control it's height, step it down with level changes as needed. The footing would step down, too, as needed, in 8" increments (or multiples thereof) to accommodate the block courses. You'll need to use wire mesh in between courses of block. For heft and strength, I would fill the cells of the block solid with concrete as it's built. (Retaining walls that are under built tip over with time. Also, you will need to embed rebar into the footing which turns upward into the wall itself, locking the two together and helping the wall to last. Search Google images for "CMU wall" and you'll be able to see all manner of examples and details. My instructions are general and you must reconcile them with local conditions.
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marcinde
16 years ago
It sounds like you're overthinking this. Figure out the center of your circle, and pound in a stake. Pound a nail in the center of the stake. Hook your tape on the nail and paint your footer. Excavate and add the base. Hook the tape again and paint out the outside face of the wall, and start laying. Get your base right and you're golden. One stake, it can stay right where it is until you're done.

Dave
skilletrx
Original Author
16 years ago
my bricks are flat on one end and rocky on another... an eye balling of it tells me that once i start to layer this the bricks heights will differ... do you guys just stick in sand b/t bricks to level it out? i think lowes has some serious QA issues.
marcinde
16 years ago
So you're doing a concrete garden wall type of thing? I think Pavestone is still the mfr for the big box stores, so... yeah, there are some definite quality issues there. Where are you in VA? You can get a better product at an actual stoneyard...
skilletrx
Original Author
16 years ago
Dave is it cheaper at the stone yard? I'm paying about 1.40 per brick. I have a bunch of 10$ off 25$ coupons i've been using for lowes.
marcinde
16 years ago
Cheaper? No, but it's a better quality product. Really, only you can decide if it's worth the extra money or not. If you stay with what you have, though, I wouldn't attempt to shim with sand. It'll look bad until the sand washes out, and at the least the wall will settle badly. If you can return unused pieces, you'd almost be better off buying more than you need and pre-sorting so each course has enough similarly-sized pieces, then returning what you don't need.

Dave

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