Chapter 1 – Retaining Wall – Duke University

The areanext to the storage shed is highest in elevation for the layout.Because the yard slopes down from that point, I will be building aretaining wall next to the patio to have a level area for pond andphase I of the layout.

For some time, I thought about what material to use for a retaining wall. My first choice was to use field stone, piled dry. While this is an easy to build solution, it is also quite espensive. I would need about $900 worth of stone, perhaps more to make the wall. In addition, it would look odd next to the house with it's brick foundation. My second choice was to use the retaining wall blocks, the ones with a tab in the rear to lock onto the course below. This too would be easy to build, but it would also look out of place next to the house. It would also not result in a vertical wall. My third option was to build a brick retaining wall. This would be the most time consuming to build since I would need to mortar many bricks into place, but it would (nearly) match the brick in the existing foundation. I would top it with poured concrete capstones, providing a nice, flat shelf for sitting on as well as other uses.

I decided on a brick retaining wall. It will be about 27" tall at the patio, low enough that one could see it while sitting down. The wall would have to jog around the train closet door, and would extend out back for about thirty feet.

The brick was delivered on Thursday, 15 June 2000. Three cubes worth, or about 1600 bricks. It took two evenings to move the three tons of bricks to the patio in the backyard.

The weather was not cooperating, so to prevent the trench from filling up with water, I covered it with plastic. Welded wire fencing was put atop the trench to support the plastic. I also made a ventilation tunnel to help in the evaporation of any water that findes its way into the trench.

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Chapter 1 - Retaining Wall - Duke University