We need to replace a 300 (face) sq ft concrete retaining wall. We wanted to build a stone wall, but so far, the estimates make stone impractical in our modest neighborhood. <br> <br>We are now considering some of the cast concrete block products, but haven't found anything that looks decent. How have others dealt with retaining walls around their homes? Our current thought is to build with wolmanized wood with a stone pier and lantern at the front (visible from the street) as a compromise and eventually replace the wolmanized wood with stone someday (when other more important projects are completed!). Our other idea is to set cast concrete blocks in mortar to dress them up a bit. <br> <br>Thanks for any ideas.

Can you use some of that new cast rock, the stuff that looks like the real thing? You could just apply it to a new cement block retaining wall and that, I'm guessing, would still be less expensive than the real stuff. There is faux rock that's meant for application to foundations and such, you just may want to look into it. Some of the samples we have here in the office are close to impossible to tell if it's real rock or not. <br> <br>Hope this helps. <br> <br>Barbara <br>

Surprisingly, when we initially looked at different types of walls, we found that a veneered wall had a similar cost as a dry set wall built with reclaimed foundation stone (which is already shaped, so it builds quickly). <br> <br>While looking at the concrete block products, we've been surprised at how far they've come in appearance and quality. Some of the blocks are very nice and I wouldn't hesitate to use them in a contemporary setting. The material costs are pretty outlandish - in some cases, much more than stone! Cheaper labor more than offsets that difference, though. <br> <br>We've been talking to design/build landscape firms, which may be part of the problem. We're going to try some independent stone masons directly before giving up on stone.

Sometimes, you'll find the journeymen are willing to make some bucks on the side, if you're willing to wait for them to finish the job working weekends alone. <br> <br>I had a pal in Colorado who did just that, and supplemented his regular work quite well. Well, until his boss found out he was undercutting his bids...

We have been toying with the idea of the manufactured stone, because the better ones really do look good (and cost more). I have seen them in place and liked them, however, when plopped near the river rock foundation walls, they lose a lot of the stone look and seem more like concrete blocks again.

I know this is an old thread and I hope it's not too late. Please re-consider using "Wolmanized" or pressure-treated lumber in any building project! It leaches arsenic into the soil and therefore into the groundwater.

Coming out of lurk. I thought I wouldn't contribute until we actually move into our bungalow on August 2 this year, but this topic is so important to us that I had to get going. I know it's an old thread but if the original poster is still around I would really like to know how you solved the concrete retaining wall problem. Our house has an ugly ugly version and we'd like to do something about it soon, although there are so many other things that need doing right away as well, I don't know when the wall will actually become a priority. <br> <br>As soon as I figure out how to scan pictures of the house into the computer and make them available I will do so. Everybody else's photos have already been a great help to me.

I'm the original poster. At this point, we haven't done anything with the wall. Procrastination and lack of a clear answer have taken over. I am half seriously hoping the wall will fall down to force a decision. <br> <br>Wolmanized wood is being phased out and is hard on the environment. We are not using it. Cast concrete blocks are expensive, depending on the contractor. Most bids with the concrete blocks have been higher than a simple dry set cut stone wall. It's hard to believe, but I think part of it is using a big landscape company versus an independent stone mason. The concrete blocks can also leech, and well, they look like concrete (regardless of the fancy face or treatment). <br> <br>We are leaning toward a rustic boulder wall, which has the advantage of being very informal (fits well with our house) and relatively simple to install. Another choice is a dry stacked quarry cut stone wall, which requires minimal on-site facing and no concrete footer. A stacked field stone wall is also attractive and simple. <br> <br>The trick is to pick a style and material that doesn't need a lot of "working" by a mason (or a concrete footing). In our area, we have very few stone choices, which severely limits the construction choices (e.g., veneers are popular, but expensive due to the construction method). I find this quite ironic, given that our area (Western PA) has traditionally used *massive* amounts of stone! <br> <br>Oh, we have even looked at reclaimed stone, but found the material can be rather pricey. If you keep it as simple as possible and find a good independent stone mason, you too may find that stone is a long lasting and economical choice. This is our conclusion at this point anyway.

Thank you for responding to my response to your thread. (That sentence is kind of a metaphor for our wall; it goes on and on and isn't particularly elegant). <br> <br>I am interested in the fact that you are looking for a "replacement" for the wall in question. That sounds as if you mean to tear it down and start over again. I would love for us to do that to our concrete retaining wall, but would it involve jackhammers or other heavy demolition activity? Or is there a way to reface the darn thing so it becomes an attractive part of the landscape rather than an ugly utility. <br> <br>At the moment this is theory for us. We don't take possession of the house until the beginning of August and haven't gone out to the property (western Massachusetts) for more than a month. <br> <br>Meanwhile are there other bungalow owners in western MA? So many lovely homes on this website, but a very large number of them are on the Pacific coast.

Consider using cheap, mortared cmu (concrete block) with a very heavy "dash" stucco finish. In craftsman-era walls, you will often see this finish. It is done using small pebbles, up to 1/4" or 3/8" in size, in addition to the sand and mortar in the stucco mix. At our house we tried to match the 1914 original stucco used for the chimney. They applied a standard heavy sand finish by machine, followed by flinging "dashes" of the pebble slurry from a wide brush. It's best done using an integral stucco color in the mix, as opposed to painting the wall afterward; therefore, the color is deep in the stucco, so that off-color pock marks don't appear if pebbles get brushed off the surface. <br> <br>The dash finish really looks great early mornings and in the evenings, when light washes the surface and leaves shadows from the bumps and irregularities. This finish looks really great when used in combination with clinker brick on fat pilasters. <br> <br>Good luck.

Please. Let me make a plea against the faux cobble/rock. I am a landscape architect. That "cast stone" or "cultured stone" stuff is beginning to reduce the amount of the real McKoy. Why do people not value authenticity and real CRAFTSMANSHIP? I appreciate a cheap board-form finished concrete wall more than a wall with machined, faked materials. It's getting harder and harder to find masons who can produce stone work that is traditional (or non-traditional, for that matter). Sorry if I come across as a complaining, elitist, whacko aesthete. :>

I had thought about such a stucco wall, but I assumed it would be more work than a simple stone wall and haven't bothered investigating it. Although materials are more expensive for stone, it seems a very simple dry stacked stone wall should be less work than a stucco wall. (I am talking about a wall with quarry cut stone blocks of the same dimension, which needs minimal fitting.) How would a stucco wall compare in effort to build?

Hello Wall Thread Posters: <br> <br>I am enthusiastically following this thread and eager to find out what pghsquare decides to do about it. <br> <br>My interest in the wall issue pertains not only to the wall per se but to the fact that there are several outdoor features of our house we'd like to transform that are constructed of concrete. We have a patio of sorts made of a solid block of poured concrete, the door steps (possibly even the door porch) are concrete, and there is a detestable screen porch we want to rip off which sits on concrete pilings. <br> <br>Although this house is in farm land of western Massachusetts, it is built on top of pure unadulterated rock. The foundation was probably dug as deep as they could do in 1922, but there is more exposed rock than basement down there. I figure that for everything the PO's wanted to do beyond the original house they just poured masses of concrete. <br> <br>How do you get rid of the extraneous concrete without jeopardizing the integrity of structure?

I'm fairly certain that a block wall with stucco finish would be easier to build, in general. If your job is small and you have all the stone you need on-site, then possibly the stone would be nearly as inexpensive. However, durable and erosion-proof dry-stack walls require good masonry skills. I like them alot, though. I collect early-century gardening books, and many of them are about "rock gardens" and "rookery". Back then, that usually meant heavily-planted, informal gardens with minimal stone use, usually dry-stack retaining walls having perennials planted in the wall crevices. Whatever you do, be sure to have the back of the retaining wall drained -- using a French drain with weep holes or drainline. Good luck.

Thank you Scott. Our house is in western Massachusetts. There are rocks and rock walls everywhere in the countryside here, so there is plenty of precedent for a good rock wall. Finding someone who can build or help us learn to build a dry stone wall is another matter. Thanks for the tip on drainage; once we get this far along I'll try to remember that.