Like most back yards, mine isn’t the perfect one you might see in Better Homes and Gardens. One of the biggest problems I have with it is that it has a pretty decent slope. At first I pretty much ignored it, although I was always concerned about the possibility of erosion on that hillside, especially after a good rain. But the more I looked at it the more I found myself wishing there was an easy way to make it safer and to make better use of that space.
Well there is – and you get it by building an interlocking retaining wall to provide support and create level areas you can landscape. Once completed, you just may feel like you have given yourself an addition to your current back or front yard.
There are many kinds of interlocking retaining wall; you can build one out of almost anything. Among the various types of walls you can build, the most common are brick retaining walls, concrete walls, timber retaining walls, landscape retaining walls or even a variation using several in one retaining wall system.
Still, for most people the interlocking retaining wall blocks are the best way to do this kind of project. Since you cannot build a retaining wall for a slope that is higher than three feet tall, it is always a good idea to sketch out a plan and measure how much height you need to enclose. If you have a greater slope height than three feet, you can always terrace the slope in sections, which can look really pretty awesome by the time you have landscaped the various sections.
So look through the different sections I have here, get familiar with the various materials and the advantages and drawbacks of each type of retaining wall. There are many great books that will give you pointers and ideas as well. Here are a few:
It may look intimidating at first, and even if you are using the basic interlocking retaining wall blocks you still need to do some planning. Also- there is some work to positioning them into place, but anyone who has even considered themselves a true do-it-yourself kind of person will appreciate the simplicity of building a wall from interlocking retaining wall blocks.