Prestige Pools Pavers & Landscapers

Retaining walls have many different purposes for a homeowner. They are used to divide sections of a home, create barriers and hold back soil, water, or rock from a building. In addition, they are often used to prevent the movement or erosion of water and soil or provide support for unstable land masses.

Generally, retaining walls are constructed using materials such as masonry, brick, concrete, steel and timber. But the most aesthetically pleasing are retaining walls using natural stone–a great addition to your landscape for both practical and aesthetic reasons.

There are four universally recognized retaining walls. These are gravity walls, sheet piling walls, cantilevered walls, and anchored walls.

Gravity Walls-These rely on the weight of the total mass, be it concrete, stone, or other heavy material, to hold back the pressures exerted upon the structure. Normally these walls lean slightly backward into the retaining soil for better stability. For walls like these, retaining walls using natural stone are preferred over plain concrete or painted finished.

Sheet Piling Walls-Normally constructed in spongy ground soil or in tight spaces, steel is the major material used in sheet pile walls. But it is not uncommon to see wooden planks also used. Wherever possible in public buildings, retaining walls using natural stone are installed–mainly because they are more beautiful than other types of walls.

It is very important to have proper drainage behind sheet piled walls as this is essential to the retaining wall’s performance. Adequate drainage materials will greatly reduce and in some cases totally eliminate the fluid pressure and significantly improve the stability of the material behind the wall.

Cantilevered Walls-This innovation came about before the introduction of modern reinforced-soil gravity walls, and they allowed engineers to construct taller retaining walls.

Typically, cantilevered walls are made from a relatively thin sheet of reinforced steel. This is placed in an inverted T shape. The former World Trade Center buildings in New York used cantilevered T-shaped retaining walls to hold back the Hudson River.

Anchored Walls-This type of wall uses steel cables or other stays that are literally anchored into the rock or soil. This type of wall is used in the construction of suspension bridges where a heavy anchor is required. Because some of these structures are above ground, retaining walls using natural stone ensure the mammoth anchor blends into the environment.

Driven deep into natural materials such as rock with boring drills, some cable anchors are filled with pressurized concrete and form a bulb shape deep underground. Although this type of retaining wall is complicated, they are widely used in projects that are going to experience high loads.

While all of these different types of retaining walls sound like something on a much bigger scale, it’s important to realize that smaller retaining walls for home purposes are often used with the same basic design principles–on a smaller scale. And these smaller versions are almost always retaining walls using natural stone.

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