Cinder block retaining wall
I'm working on a small, non-structural retaining wall. As many of you know, the neighbor's dog recently dug under the fence and killed our chicken. I had secured some corrugated metal between the fence posts that was successful in keeping the dog out of our yard, however, my dog has cut her paws twice now. Each time requiring stitches, and each time costing over $500. It's time for something more durable, and less trashy. I'd share a picture of the metal secured under the fence, but after the second time the dog cut herself, my wife came home in a full blown rage and tore all the metal apart and put it on the curb for trash day. Between my wife and the neighbor's mother desperately trying to plug the gap under the fence, they've essentially just found all the trash in each of our yards and piled it under the fence. Not exactly the look I'm after.
So I've done a little research and, like usual, jumped in with both feet. I'll share the photos along the way, for better or for worse.
Step one: Watch a few Youtube videos. Looks pretty easy right? I mean, if Bob Vila himself can't even properly butter a cinder block, I'm sure I'll have no trouble doing it.
Step two: Go to the building store and buy all the materials. I wanted a 3/4" angled rock as the base so it would lock together better, but since Home Depot didn't carry that, I let them talk me into pea gravel and all purpose sand. My idea was to build a section of wall between each of the fence posts, for three, ten foot sections of wall. This will give me a chance to try my hand at this project without biting off more than I can chew. Pictured is twenty 8" x 8" x 16" cinder blocks ($1.75), two 8" x 8" x 8" half blocks ($1.25), eight 2" x 8" x 16" caps ($0.84), a brick laying trowel ($7.87), two 50 lb bags of pea gravel ($4.75), one 50 lb bag of all purpose sand ($3.45), and one 80 lb bag of Quikrete Type S Mason Mix ($5.84). I actually only needed ten of the full sized cinder blocks and both half blocks, so I'm well on the way to the materials for the next section. Grand total of $76.90.
Step three: Dig out your trench. I was shooting for 20" from the bottom of the trench to the bottom of the fence, and ended up at about 21" all the way across. You can dig into the night with a desk lamp like I did, but it will feel more like you're robbing graves than building a wall. Oh yeah, here I used the side of the half block to tamp down the soil and try to level everything out.
Step four: Fill trench with one inch of pea gravel. Here I decided to fill in the trench, then lay the cap blocks down and level each one. I don't know if this is correct, or just a waste of time, but that's what I did.
Step five: Pour the All Purpose Sand over the pea gravel.
Step six: Mock up the wall and let it sit over night. The sand makes it much more easy to level each block. Easy to the point that I'm not very confident that the sand will stay put with the weight of the blocks, since all you need to do is push down and the block will move. I've got everything mocked up and will let it sit over night for now. To be continued tomorrow. I'll have to notch my raised bed garden wall a bit to fit a full cinder block in correctly, but that should be simple enough. Here is where I've stopped for the night.
The mortar should add 3/8" of an inch at each level, so that will add 1 1/4" to the total height. Tomorrow will likely be the difficult part as I've never properly mixed mortar to the correct consistancy, buttered blocks, or tried to keep everything level and sticking together at the same time. Everything up to this point has been surprisingly easy so far. Pretty much just heavy lifting and manual labor. Some things that are available that I'm not using are Mason line (string) to keep the wall straight, and 3/8" spacers to keep the mortar line straight. I'll update the project when I'm finished.
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