I'm starting to talk to masons and hardscape firms about building walls around my urban rowhouse backyard/patio. I had assumed that my choices were brick or concrete block, but today one company suggestd using the kind of interlocking concrete "stone" that is used for retaining walls. He says that they don't require the same kind of footings a brick wall does and would be less expensive to construct. He left me a brochure from Hanover.

In looking it over, I notice however, that it says one should buy 1" of stone for every 8" of exposed wall and that walls of over 3 foot (and mine would be 5.5 feet high) need "engineering design"and, frankly, it just sounds scary to me that over five feet of concrete blocks wouldn't need more than 8" of buried stone blocks.

Can any one enlighten me? Would this be a safe and reasonable alternative to brick walls? I actually like the look of a lot of these paver/faux stone things, but don't want these walls coming down in a few years. The house is over 100 years old...I don't expect the walls to last that long, but at least through my remaining lifetime!

Xposting this on landscaping design, cuz I'm not really sure which is the right forum for questions like this.