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Retaining Walls
Curved Stone Retaining Wall with Steps
A stacked stone wall curved to follow a sloped front yard, with capped steps built into the run and an irregular flagstone landing at its foot.
- Service
- Retaining Walls
- Material
- Stacked stone with bluestone caps and treads
What the job involved
- Curved stacked-stone wall terracing a sloped front yard
- Capped steps rising between two wall runs rather than beside them
- Irregular flagstone landing at the foot of the steps
The steps rise between the two wall runs rather than being set beside them, which is the difference between a wall that has steps and a wall that was designed with steps in it. Both walls terminate cleanly into the step cheeks, so there is no awkward junction where a straight run meets a stair that was added later.
The curve follows the natural line of the slope instead of cutting across it. A straight wall on ground like this leaves wedge-shaped scraps of lawn at each end that never look intentional and are miserable to mow.
What you cannot see is the part that decides whether it stays standing. Behind the face there is drainage aggregate, filter fabric keeping the soil out of that aggregate, and a drain at the base running to an outfall. Saturated soil weighs dramatically more than dry soil and pushes considerably harder, and hydrostatic pressure is the single most common reason stone walls lean out and eventually come down.
