Rebuilding a Boulder Retaining Wall

The existing retaining wall had started to fail and blow out. This was due to both improper installation as well as using stones that were far too small for the purposes of retaining close to 6 ft of dirt. Most of the stones used were under 20 lbs in weight and the few larger ones were not placed on their wider sides. Rather they were stood on their narrower sides in order to conserve material usage by the previous installer.

To remediate this, all of the old walls were taken down and large blast rock all in the hundreds of pounds were brought in. Over 8 tons of new boulders were brought in, all selected for their nice flat sides as well as for mass. Smaller stones, much of it leftover from the previous wall, were then used to fill in the small nooks and crannies both for aesthetic purposes but also to further lock in the larger boulders with each other. The boulders were also placed so there was a bit of a setback, meaning they lean backwards into the soil rather than totally flat on the boulders below them. This adds a level of safety to the entire structure as we do not want to have boulders rolling down and crushing people or cars.