Replacing a Failing Stone Wall

This entire section of stone wall had multiple cracks and was noticeably leaning towards the house, which was only a few feet away. Additionally, the space above the wall had frequent traffic. The main impetus to redo this wall was safety.

During the demolition phase of the wall, a jackhammer was not even needed as what was left of the mortar simply crumpled. While that made things much easier to demolish, it showed just how badly in shape the wall was in. Another thing that was discovered was that there was no drainage for this wall installed and no gravel backfill. In essence, it was poorly constructed.

As I do with all the walls I build, the backfill was filled with clean gravel wrapped in filter cloth so water pressure doesn’t build up and hydrostatic pressure pushes on the wall. Hydrostatic pressure can be many tons when the soil becomes water logged. Removing this factor can significantly increase a wall’s lifespan. A perforated drain pipe along with an exit in the face of the wall was installed along the bottom. This pipe collects all the water that perforates through the gravel, routing it to a set of trees the owner had along their fence in the back. This was all hidden behind the wall and underground and everything is gravity fed. Furthermore, geogrid was installed in multiple layers to further reinforce the backfill gravel, again, increasing the overall wall’s longevity. Finally, everything was topped with new topsoil and seeded to maintain the previous look and feel.