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Gardening with Stone

Stone Retaining Wall drainage

19 years ago

We have some moderately serious grading issues we are trying to resolve. The back of our yard slopes 5-6 ft down over approx 12 ft where is flattens out for the last 10-12 ft to the house. We will be raising the grade from the house to the main slope and plan on cutting into that slope and having a stone retaining wall built out of small boulders.

We've gotten several quotes on getting the job done. Interestingly, when the "Unilock" type retaining walls were discussed, the contractors all mentioned installing a drain at the base of the wall to move the water away. In the boulder plans, the contractors don't include this and indicate that that type of wall doesn't require the same type of drainage system. The last two said that the combination of the improved grading and the retaining wall will create a valley that will move the water to a low spot away from the house naturally.

Because I am a novice at these things, should I insist on drain tile at the base of a boulder wall in the same manner as proposed with a Unilock wall?

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Comments (2)

matteow
19 years ago
Are you talking about a drainline behind the wall at its base, or infront. If behind, which is the norm to alleviate any water pressure that collects and could push the wall over, especially with the tight fitting blocks. It is not as important with natural rock since the fit is much looser. But there is nothing wrong with over building and protecting the structure. Just make sure that either wall is backfilled about 6" from top to bottom with drain rock. That is the most important part!
Hope this helps!
iinsic
Original Author
19 years ago
Thanks for the advice. I was thinking about the drain behind, as I'd seen in many diagrams of the block walls. I'm with you, if it doesn't add a ton of money to the project, there's no harm in adding a drain to the stone wall as additional precaution.
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While ancient walls have been built like yours and still stand, Marcinde's method makes it easier to guarantee that you won't have problems. Your wall looks like it has decent batter, but it cannot be determined from the picture if it's consistent throughout. I think this is one of the most important components of dry-stack retaining wall stability. Keeping batter sufficient throughout will help wall longevity. With greater batter comes greater stability and, personally, I like the look of it as long as it's uniform. You could easily create a wooden triangle with a level attached to gauge the batter uniformly.
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Thanks for responding. They are crestone II retaining wall blocks from Menard's. Concrete another words. You may be right about the downspout but it was either that or have it run behind the wall, on top of the dirt, then drain down the top/front of the wall. The way I ran it, the downspout ties into the end part of the retaining wall drainage pipe with a "T" connector. One direction it goes along the wall and the other it goes to an opening out the wall. This is where I thought most of the water from the downspout would drain.
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Wouldn't the first problem be his wall? Your foundation won't be getting any more water pressure on it than it has, will it? Seems to me the water that was formerly running onto your land adn soaking in next to your foundation will instead either soak in further away, so dissipate, or put pressure on the retaining wall. That said, I'm surprised he didn't use weep holes or put a pipe along the bottom that would channel water around your house.
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Hi! I'm a landscape company owner in Georgia. We've found that while you do not necessarily need the drainage aggregate behind a small garden wall like this, it does not add very much cost to the project, so you might as well go ahead and put at least 4-6 inches of gravel backfill. This protect the wall and help prevent any dirt from flowing through the cracks in the wall, causing a dirty appearance. If you'd like to think about wall options a little more, check out our retaining wall page on our website. Happy wall building!
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