Hello,

I have a series of bushes in my front yard that I'm thinking about
"fencing in" with a rock wall (partly for aesthetics, partly to keep
leaves from blowing into the bushes). I'd have to dig up some bushes
at the front of the bed to make room for the wall. I've posted
pictures he http://filer.case.edu/~mel/rockwall/rockwall.htm.

I've read about building loose rock walls on the Internet, but I
haven't found any talk of building the wall along, as opposed to into,
a slope. I'd estimate the slope to be around 10-15 degrees. The
length of the wall would be about 32 feet as measured along the slope.
At its shortest point, I would plan for the wall to be a foot or so
high.

Are there any special considerations when constructing such a wall
along a slope? Should I stair-step the wall so that sections are about
the same height from ground to top? Or should I make the wall even
along the top for its whole length, which would result in the right
side being much taller than the left. That might not be possible if
I'm trying to keep the wall no higher at any point than the recommended
3 foot height I've read about.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks very much,
Matt

Matt wrote:

I have a series of bushes in my front yard that I'm thinking about
"fencing in" with a rock wall (partly for aesthetics, partly to keep
leaves from blowing into the bushes). I'd have to dig up some bushes
at the front of the bed to make room for the wall. I've posted
pictures he http://filer.case.edu/~mel/rockwall/rockwall.htm.

I've read about building loose rock walls on the Internet, but I
haven't found any talk of building the wall along, as opposed to into,
a slope. I'd estimate the slope to be around 10-15 degrees. The
length of the wall would be about 32 feet as measured along the slope.
At its shortest point, I would plan for the wall to be a foot or so
high.

Are there any special considerations when constructing such a wall
along a slope? Should I stair-step the wall so that sections are about
the same height from ground to top? Or should I make the wall even
along the top for its whole length, which would result in the right
side being much taller than the left. That might not be possible if
I'm trying to keep the wall no higher at any point than the recommended
3 foot height I've read about.

The excavations for the footings should be level and those should be
stepped. The wall itself can follow the slope or also be stepped as
that's largely an esthetic concern.

The height limitation of 3' isn't a given as you're not building a
retaining wall (more on that later), so there's no soil pressure to
contend with, and it's more of a function of wall stability versus wall
thickness. You should definitely investigate the zoning implications
and see what the building inspector says before you get your heart set
on anything.

I really don't understand your intention in building the wall. It
won't prevent leaves from getting behind the wall and will certainly
make it much tougher to maintain the planting bed. You'll either be
working from above reaching down into the pit you've created, or
leaning over a 3' high wall trying to scoop out the leaves that will
collect there. It seems to me that you really need a terraced pair of
walls. A lower one at the sidewalk and a higher one set back a couple
or three feet. It would require adding some fill, and making sure that
there's adequate drainage behind the walls, but it would look much
nicer.

If you don't have a computer program that lets you mess around with
such design ideas, you might want to check out Google's new free 3D
app, called SketchUp. It's easy to learn how to use and you'll be able
to play around with different ideas.

R

Remember to add drainaige at the bottom of the wall, near the footing.
Most walls fail because of inadequate drainaige. The water pressure
builds up at the base of the wall and forces the wall to fall over.
You can build drainaige with the 4" perforated PVC, wrap them in fine
mesh wrap (sold for this purpose), fill with river rock and wrap all
the rock in another wrap. You can drain out the side or front. Fill
the top with your preferred dirt.

tim1198

with such a minor slope, building any sort of wall is just creating
more future work.

your better off ditching the bushes resloping the yard, and
relandscaping to something easy to maintain.

If you want LOTS of work for the rest of your life HAVE FUN!

I have a similar setup in my front yard, no bushes, but I built a dry
stack rock retaining wall. I didn't worry about drainage because when
you dry stack stone there are gaps, plenty of places for water to
drain. I kept mine the same height all the way across. I didn't go to
tall though, I stacked 2-3 stones for a height of about 14-16 inches.
When you choose what kind of stone you are going to use keep in mind
that you are going to need a little extra stone to do the job. Don't
get just enough, because you need a selection to choose from. Laying
stone is a like putting together a big puzzle and without a selection
to choose from you will have a hard time finding the right pieces to
fit toghether nicely.What kind of stone are you planning on using? A
roundish fieldstone, or more square like Fondulac?

Thanks for the reply and pointer to SketchUp, I'll check that out. As
far as keeping leaves out with the wall, I don't actually have any
trees that extend over the planting bed. My house is on a corner and
the leaves are blown under the bushes from neighboring trees. So I
think it would act as a barrier. A second wall would look nice, but I
have about 2 feet of space to work with in front of the flowering
bushes. So I think one wall will have to suffice. And I plan on
filling in behind the wall with soil, so I won't be reaching over the
wall into a pit when it comes to maintenance.

Thanks again for the suggestions,
Matt

I was thinking of a squarish stone. Any recommendations besides
Fondulac? When you did your wall, did you dig into the slope so the
base was at the same level for the length of the wall? Or did you
stair-step the base? Did you dig deep enough so that the base stones
were below the level of the surrounding ground?

And thanks for the suggestion about extra stones. Easily the kind of
thing an rank amateur like myself would not think of.

Thanks,
Matt