Retaining wall on a budget


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Old 10-16-17, 01:38 PM
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Retaining wall on a budget

Hello. We live in a row house that backs out onto the bottom of a large hill. Water drainage hasn't been a big problem yet, as the hill continues downwards from the front. In the back, the hill grades between 20-30%. It goes back about 100 feet, and is roughly 15 feet wide.

I have already built two retaining walls out of 6x6s, with drainage pipes, higher up on the hill.

I have a bunch of old interlocking stones, enough to build a wall about 10' wide and 2' 3" (4 blocks plus coping) high that I picked up for cheap. They are multigrooved and have a built-in setback - they look similar to unilock pisa 2 stones, but the grooves are much smaller and more in number. I have also picked up a lot of limestone screenings for free.

Never having built a stone wall, I have a few questions. For context, we don't have a lot of money, and no car, so getting bricks and gravel is not impossible but it would require a lot of time and other budget sacrifices.

1/ After I did the trench, can I use the limestone screenings as the base? I've read that 1/2 inch to 3/4 inch gravel is far superior for drainage and because of the corrosive nature of limestone screenings. Comments would be appreciated. I have a bike that I could grab bags of gravel with, one at a time, if it is necessary. I'd love for it not to be necessary.

2/ Is it a crazy idea to lay a level of coping down first and then put down the bricks on top? I'm doing this to add a little bit of height to the wall, which would ideally be another 6 inches higher to achieve level grade. I'm also doing this because I have a lot of extra coping - enough to cap the wall 3 times over. Visually I've tried it out and it looks pretty good.

3/ I've never cut a brick in half, and I can't afford a guillotine. I do have a brick hammer and chisels. Do I score at the halfway and then tap in a chisel? How deeply do I need to score and what is the ideal tool to score with.

Thanks in advance for your help. I'm quite new to this, so pretend I'm a teenager. (I almost wish I was)
 
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Old 10-16-17, 01:51 PM
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Let's start from the beginning. Why did you build 2 retaining walls? Why is a third wall needed? Can you post some wide angled pics of the yard & the existing walls?
 
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Old 10-16-17, 02:04 PM
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Hi - thanks for your help. I'll try to post some pics later tonight. Short answer - the backyard is a massive hill, and very difficult to walk on because of the steep grade, so from top down I'm putting in a series of terraces, with stairs up along the side. This is also to help combat erosion, which is quite evident. We've also been putting in lots of plants in strategic areas to deal with the latter.
 
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Old 10-16-17, 02:14 PM
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Stairs & plants are great ideas. If you don't have any mud slides or flooding, that might be all that's needed.
 
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Old 10-16-17, 02:32 PM
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Thanks for the advice. I'd still love to get answers to my questions if anyone can help. We need terraces to make the backyard useable as a safe space to walk around in. Stairs and plants will help with erosion, but won't actually help us actually walk in the backyard without fear of sliding down. All the members of my family have had close calls while slipping down the hill.
 
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Old 10-16-17, 02:45 PM
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I don't know what else can be done. Post some pics & maybe we can think of something.
 
 

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