gabion walls

[NL_Poster]

I am doing some work around the hard and was going to take the "slope"
off the bank on the lawn. I was thinking of putting a rock wall or
wood across it. I heard a few people mention gabion walls. Any
thoughts or suggestions?

[Borrall Wonnell]

How big is the bank...width/height/slope? Front or back of the house?

The walls I've seen locally are ugly... you can only expect so much
from glorified chicken wire cages filled with rock.

A much prettier option would be AB Junior (Allan block). They are
designed so you can make straight or curved walls, and also step back
slightly to compensate for hydrostatic pressure (i.e. keep the wall
from falling down). I haven't priced it but suspect it would be quite
costly for a large wall.

No matter what you put there, make sure you do the proper prep work or
your wall won't last!

[KR]

I think Gabions are fine in areas that cannot be seen, but like
Borrall says, they are not attractive.

We used stone from Concrete Products (it slopes slightly back from the
lawn below) and it works great and lasts! It is also very attractive,
but was very expensive. There are so many products out there, it
really depends on how much you want to spend and how pretty you want
it to be! I would avoid wood (unless you use the composite wood
products) as it will need to be replaced at some point whereas stone
will not rot and if done right will last forever. You may also want
to consider any effects of snowclearing (or lack thereof) if the wall
will be next to the road or sidewalk.

There are also these big white "things" (sorry, don't know what they
are called) that are placed and filled with stone, they can also step
back slightly from the edge of the bank. I've seen them at car
dealerships on Kenmount Rd, and there is a very large one on Forest
Road by Quidi Vidi.

KR

[jim]

> > your wall won't last!- Hide quoted text -
>
> - Show quoted text -

Ive seen some good jobs done with gabion as the primary retaining wall
and bell island slate in front