[acarsme]

Hello, I have a garden wall that goes along the side of my house and curves around to meet my deck at the back of the house. The wood is old, and rotting, and was just originally made with small 2x4 type landscape timbers. Whoever built the original wall just looked like they spiked a bunch of these timbers together, but didn't do the job right. They just have these small wood stakes in front of the wall, which of course did nothing to prevent it from leaning forward. Our house is unique as it sits on top of a steep hill. The yard start to slope almost immediately beyond the foundation of the house. I really need to try and do this project myself to save money. I contemplate using segmented block. I've watched numerous videos and it doesn't seem that hard. I measured the height of the existing wall, and it's less than 2 ft high. If I went with block, could I get away with the smaller 12x4 wall block you commonly find at Lowes or Home Depot? Or should I go with larger, heavier blocks for added stability? I just worry because I don't have any equipment to cut blocks...I don't even own a truck to be able to haul materials.
My friend also suggested maybe using bigger timbers, like 6x6 ground contact rated timbers. He thinks that might be even easier to work with. What are opinions on this? I have also watched videos on using these timbers, and every video talks about using deadmen. Would I need to do such a thing for such a small wall? I'm looking for any advice. I'm going to try and include some photos of what I'm dealing with. Thanks.

 

[acarsme]

...apparently I can't insert pictures using google photos links

 

[acarsme]

 

[Colbyt]

It is hard maybe even brutal work but there is no reason why you can't do it. Home Depot or Lowes will deliver the stone on pallets for not much money (cheaper and better than renting a truck). You just need to be accurate in your measurements and ordering.

Digging the trench with something close to a level bottom, placing and compacting the base and getting the first course flat and level is the hard part. Laying up the next 2-3 courses is really easy work. Capping with a solid stone top requires a bit of skill and tools which is why a lot of people skip this step.

Do note that you always want to maintain a slope away from the house.

This was about 2 months worth of work on decent early winter days, some of the digging occurred before the first image. You see the start of the wall and the uncapped finished but not yet completely backfilled wall.

 

[oh'mike]

I'm a bit concerned with the soil up against the brick----I believe the grade is to high.

4 to 6 inches of the foundation should be showing----if not--insects have a direct path into your framing--and the sill plate will be subject to constant moisture.

 

[acarsme]

So oh'mike should I replace the soil with just rock if I intend to keep that wall partition along the house? If I were to just sweep away a little of that dirt, I expose some rough concrete that juts out from the foundation. I believe this is additional concrete they added after the original foundation was poured....or the builders just did a bad job with the foundation. I think maybe the house had erosion issues due to it sitting on the edge of a steep hill. We have the same kind of deal in the back corner of the house on the other side.....rough concrete that juts out from the side. I hate how it looks, I wish I knew why it's like that.....but I can't track down the builder of the house or original owners to be able to ask them. It's a mystery. I even had a structural engineer look over the house when we bought it, and he didn't even seem concerned about the extra poured concrete.

I guess that's another topic....but anyways back to my wall....
If I went with wood 6x6 timbers, would I even have to add deadmen for such a small height? We're literally talking less than 2ft.....more like a foot and a half tall. I'm not even sure how I would install deadmean with such a short height....there's no earth to set a deadman into like I've seen in all the videos I've watched. So what do I do if I want to go the wood route? Or am I just better off sticking to block? My only issue with block is getting it to match any future retaining walls we may do on the back side of the house. Wood is universal.