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garden stone retaining wall
Hi,
Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall. Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a possiblility? I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar, but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home. Appreciate any adivise or directions. Sam. |
garden stone retaining wall
"sams" wrote in message m... Hi, Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall. Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a possiblility? I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar, but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home. Appreciate any adivise or directions. There are many good books on landscaping and garden structures at bookstores and home improvement centers. You might browse some of them for ideas. I think the snake thing is irrational. If you don't have snakes now, I doubt that they will be a problem in the future. Of course most snakes are harmless to people and beneficial in controlling rodents and insect pests. There are morterless retaining wall blocks of various sizes and colors available at home improvement centers. You can look he http://www.pavestone.com/retail/ http://www.allanblock.on.ca/products.html http://www.google.com/search?sourcei...retaining+wall |
garden stone retaining wall
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garden stone retaining wall
"sams" wrote in message m... Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my back yard. I've done several of those and found them very satisfying. In my case I used the natural stones lying around, of which I had many. Never had a problem with snakes living in them (but then here in Eastern Ontario snakes aren't very scary) but rodents do find them handy. You can help to stabilize them by spreading them out on the ground before installation and spending some time eyeballing them for a good fit. It takes a while but you can come up with impressive results without mortar. Good luck. |
garden stone retaining wall
You can help to stabilize them by spreading them out on the ground before installation and spending some time eyeballing them for a good fit. It takes a while but you can come up with impressive results without mortar. Good luck. Yes, the DRY STONE WALL, no mortar, is quite a wonderful thing. a book which shows actual pictures of how these walls are built, (each face of the wall slopes to the center---hard to describe, easy to diagram) would be the way to go. Mortar is comparatively recent in this scheme of things; HUGE structures were made without it. hermine stover |
garden stone retaining wall
On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 01:51:50 GMT, hermine stover
wrote: HUGE structures were made without it. At great cost and with craftsman, hardly a comparison for half assed concrete blocks! |
garden stone retaining wall
"hermine stover" wrote in message ... Yes, the DRY STONE WALL, no mortar, is quite a wonderful thing. a book which shows actual pictures of how these walls are built, (each face of the wall slopes to the center---hard to describe, easy to diagram) would be the way to go. Mortar is comparatively recent in this scheme of things; HUGE structures were made without it. You mean - like pyramids?? I've climbed over some of the oldest known pyramids down in central Mexico, and it'd be more than I'd want to tackle in a week. ;-) Tom J |
garden stone retaining wall
On Mon, 10 Nov 2003 18:08:50 -0800, Tom Jaszewski
wrote: On Tue, 11 Nov 2003 01:51:50 GMT, hermine stover wrote: HUGE structures were made without it. At great cost and with craftsman, hardly a comparison for half assed concrete blocks! I was not suggesting Stonehenge or Easter Island stone heads; nor had the idea of concrete blocks, half or whole-assed, even enter'd my mnd! i was just encouraging the lad to build a dry stone wall! i was not even referencing those charming stone beehives one finds all over Eire! check this out: http://www.stoneline.ch/english/drystone.php hermine stover |
garden stone retaining wall
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garden stone retaining wall
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garden stone retaining wall
years ago, in the '30's one of my aunts had a lot down from a gravel
road that went VERY STEEPLY down to a creek. this was in Missouri near ST Louis and the property sprouted rocks like the garden sprouts radishes. each rain brought more up. she patiently gathered them each day as weather and time permited and built a rock, morterless wall about 2 feet wide at the top across the front of the property to protect it from water from the road, then down the north side going down the very step hill. i loved it.. have loved it in my memories for years but when i visited the place in about 1984 new owners, had torn it all down saying that it had become rat infested.. i think i would have done something about the rats.. not the wall! it had been there about 40 years with no breaks. lee h (sams) wrote in message om... Hi, Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall. Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a possiblility? I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar, but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home. Appreciate any adivise or directions. Sam. |
garden stone retaining wall
|
garden stone retaining wall
"sams" wrote in message
m... Hi, Iam thinking of putting a 2' tall garden stone retaining wall in my back yard. Probably for 15' long, approximately 1/3 of the backyard width. My backyard is higher than the front yard. Iam in a rolling slope. And thinking of filling this with whatever good and cheap and make it look like a patio or flower bed or a water fall. Any good site on the web to improve my imagination, and make it a possiblility? I would like to get more suggestions and what will be a good plan to improve the property value and turn something sore to the eye into beautiful. My thinking is to DIY a granite stone wall with no mortar, but wife is afraid of snake and other creatures making it a home. Appreciate any adivise or directions. Sam. Are you using existing rocks from your yard or are you purchasing stone? A dry laid stone wall is much much harder to do than you think, especially if it is your first one. Whatever stone you have, you need to lay them out on the ground and "sort" them. Think of it as a giant 3-D jigsaw puzzle. The yard will look like a disaster zone before you lay your first rock. Depending on the type of stone you use, you will need more than is actually in the wall because some of the stones just don't fit anywhere. This is assuming you are trying to get a tighter fit with somewhat flat faces, as opposed to a farmer's rubble wall. Using some of your old large plastic garden pots, throw the useless or smaller rocks into them. At certain points when building your wall, you'll need filler in the middle. Just grab a bucket full of these rocks and pour it in and work them into any larger voids. The wall should be at least as wide (at the base) as it is tall. As far as tools, a rock hammer, handheld sledge and a cold chisel (don't forget the safety glasses) and lots of gloves (you'll wear them out real fast). You'll eventually figure out where the seams in a granite rock are. Here's one safety tip I learned the hard way... you see the perfect rock but it's toward the bottom of the pile or wedged in with some other rocks. DON'T try to just pull it out and save time. Spend the extra minute to take the other rocks away from it. One small slip and you'll have a smashed finger or hand and you won't be working on your wall for a while. -al sung Rapid Realm Technology, Inc. Hopkinton, MA (Zone 6a) |
garden stone retaining wall
hermine stover wrote:
Yes, the DRY STONE WALL, no mortar, is quite a wonderful thing. a book which shows actual pictures of how these walls are built, (each face of the wall slopes to the center---hard to describe, easy to diagram) would be the way to go. Mortar is comparatively recent in this scheme of things; HUGE structures were made without it. But without mortar, old walls were built with carefully dressed stones. The joints were so perfect, not even a knife blade could be inserted. And the walls were quite thick since only gravity kept them from falling. -- David E. Ross http://www.rossde.com/ Concerned about someone snooping into your E-mail? Use PGP. See my http://www.rossde.com/PGP/ |
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