Five Tips for Choosing Your Stone Retaining Wall
Stone retaining walls can be used to keep gardens, lawns, flower beds and banks level and healthy, as long as you properly place and build them. Retaining walls are beautiful, too. When they’re well-built, they can be used as focal points themselves. Enhance your landscape using a stone retaining wall by incorporating just a few simple ideas.
- Choose natural stone for your retaining wall. No other material has the same character or variety as natural stone. Contact Stone Haven or visit our showroom to explore the possibilities. In a world where people walk by standardized brick and concrete every day, natural stone stands out.
- If your wall is going to be longer than 30 linear feet you may want to install some natural stone steps near the center of the wall. These give you and your guests access to the area above the wall. With the right stone and construction, the steps will add beauty as well as functionality to your retaining wall.
- Put a curve in the wall for a natural look. You can also give the wall an organic ambiance by building the retaining wall so that its height follows the lay of the land. Remember that at either end of the wall, you have the option of either tapering it off or making square corners with a return into the bank.
- A natural stone cap that overhangs the wall by 2 or 3 inches will act as a crown for your masterpiece and strengthen the wall, too. Use a stone cap to frame the wall, bring attention to the patterns in your work, and emphasize the different shapes of individual stones within the retaining wall.
- Add the odd large rock to the wall to give it a character all its own. A beautiful natural stone wall is a unique object; it quickly becomes a local landmark or a friendly, familiar site to anyone familiar with the area. That not only makes your property more beautiful, but transfers that to your entire neighbourhood.