I have a few sloping areas that I'm looking to convert into vegetable gardens. There was a dry stack wall there that was falling apart, so I tore it down and started prepping to build a stone and mortar wall. This will look consistent with the other parts of the property and I just like the look better overall.
I've been doing a lot of reading on this and, as always, there is a lot of conflicting opinion information out there.
The wall will be about 25 feet in length and between 3-4' in high. I'm using stone from the property to build the wall.
I've read that you should be below the frost line for a mortared wall. For CT this means below 40+". I'm not doing that. This seems excessive to me and (perhaps selfishly) I don't need the wall to stand for 2,000 years. I have dug down 24".
Here are my questions:
1. What are the next steps here? I've read that I should put compacted gravel stone on the base layer. If I have a 24" trench, how much gravel should I put down?
2. What do I do after the gravel layer? Do I need to put a cement layer first? Is the gravel enough?
3. Is it necessary to backfill with gravel before the soil? Seems like a smart step, and I'm fine doing it, but someone I spoke with recommended a foot of backfill before the soil. A foot seems like a lot.
I may have more questions but I think these are the most concerning right now.
Thanks in advance!!
I ended up going with a free standing wall. Less work, less worry about moisture and pressure.
Damn it, I was hoping I could avoid the politics :)
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So frankly, I'm not sure if I can get down that far. I'm hitting a lot of rock at 24/28 inches. I get it, and agree with you, but we are on top of a "mountain" and rocks populate the yard, so I'm not sure if I can realistically get further.
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That's for a dry stone wall; it's not mortared. Much different.
Four by 25 by two or three feet of rock cemented together is a very big problem when the rain and snow and freezing weather get at it.
The earth has already settled. So, if you did not already churn up the ground below where the all is going, then all you really need to do is scrape/flatten out the area and begin with your wall.
The stability will come from how you layer the stones vs what you put beneath if the ground you are starting with is virtually undisturbed.
After digging what seemed like forever I filled it with 1 inch size stone and tamped it down. Then cemented my first layer of cinder blocks right to the stone. The most difficult part of the entire project was using the correct amount of water for the cement and mortar.
If so I'm pretty sure you'll need to support whatever wall you are building so it doesn't eventually get pushed over by the earth. Maybe I missed something but I didn't see that covered in your post.