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Gardening with Stone

dry stacked retaining wall

14 years ago

I have been researching on how to build a dry stacked stone wall. It seems not too difficult for myself as I am a beginner. I have one concern and that is which way should the wall taper so as to prevent the wall from being push over by the pressure of the soil behind it? I have read about how to stack the wall both ways and I see the merit in both ways. Please help me decide which way is the best to have a wall that won't fall over.

tortugo

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Comments (2)

karin_mt
14 years ago
The wall should be widest at the base and will taper toward the top. This is true if it is a freestanding wall or a retaining wall. In the case of a retaining wall it is especially important to have the face of the wall leaning in toward the hillside. This is called the wall's "batter."

Happy stacking!
dvmak
12 years ago
Building a dry stacked wall to run along a driveway. It will only be 20" high but it's on an incline. Most of what I read says to create steps when building on an incline but this is 200' long and about 25% incline so it would be stepped almost every 5 feet to maintain level and still have 20" hieight.
Is it required to step or can a dry stacked low wall just sit in the natural incline?
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