[Nac]

I have a landscaper who wants a price from me to build a 110' x 6' retaining wall and then fill in the property and grade it about 450 CY of fill needed. The only thing is the homeowner does not like the look of Keystone type walls. He wants large boulders. I went to the local quarry and the only thing they have is shot rock at 16.00/ Ton but they will not ship it. I looked at the pile and there are no uniform sizes or shapes and most seem to be 12-24" seems a bit small for a 6' high wall. I was thinking if it would work and I am not crazy maybe I could build the wall out of dead man block 2x2x6 concrete block and then veneer it with cultured stone but the cultured stone would only go to the joints so you would see the 2x6 pattern of the dead man. If i were to lay the cultured stone across the joints it would not work since this wall is still somewhat flexible sitting on 3/4 stone and not being below frost line. Any suggestions or ideas would help.

[Stonehenge]

Nac - check out Redi-Rock and see if that might fit the bill. Still looks like pieces, but they're much larger.

[Nac]

They do not produce rediblock nere me it would come from upstate NY or Penn. I thought about it but it does look a bit to industrial

[Bill Schwab]

How much does your client have to invest in the project? We have built Keystone walls then had shot crete blown over them. After that a rock scape artist came in and tooled canyon style rock into the shot crete so basically, you have an effect that looks like a waterpark without the water next to an in road.

Are you sitting down for the cost? The Keystone part was Standards, set with Strata Grid. Cost, 32.00 per sf, or in your case, a mere 18K. The shot crete came in at $12,500 to blow an 8" layer over the face and the rock scape artist company was yet another $18,000.....

I'm not sure you would want shot rock, because of its compostion. Bascially, it is the rock the blast prior to going into the crusher and gradiation machine....So, lots of layers to peel apart very easily. Boulders, 6' tall, even with dead men, how would you hold the areas where no dead men would be placed? And then you got yer basic look....To me, many of those wals look like an organized pile of rocks. Now if you planted between the cracks that could be fun but I still can't get past a 6' wall and 450 yards of dirt it is holding....

[Paul]

Start checking other quarries, you could build it out of larger boulders(we use granite boulders)sized 2' to 3', or a flat type of stone called outcropping (here it's limestone) sized 5'x3'x8"12". Cost can be a problem with some customers, starting at around $135 to $225 per ton. Lucky I don't see more than 200 tons of stone needed.

[Paul]

Here's a shot along the fox river

[Bill Schwab]

Mill Race park? Or is that up in Dundee?

[Paul]

West Dundee

[Bill Schwab]

Thought so....It was one of those two places...Lots of memories in West Dundee at Masis pizza, Shanangans, and C.R. Spirits....

[Paul]

If you check this thread you can see some of the different stone that can be used to build walls plus in different places along water. srw and water

I never had too much of a problem building up to 7' or 8' with natural stone but the higher you go the more its going to cost! Also be aware that there is more hand labor involved once you get into limited access sites.

Your making me hungry again Bill next time your out here you got to spend more time! Besides Jeff's going to foot the bill for the Limo!

[treedoc1]

easy to ship from my site in eastern W VA off of I-81 and I-70

[treedoc1]

I just stacked these with the dozer so I didn't have to keep cutting back from the house I'm building. Not much movement with these...most are at 6-8' tall. Not as pretty as the ones from the quarry, but I'm just trying to get the house done...function first.

[Stonehenge]

Originally posted by Paul
Jeff's going to foot the bill for the Limo!

Say wha?

I have the feeling that if the three of us get together, I'll gain ten pounds that day.

Bill - if shotcrete was getting done over the face of your wall, it would seem to take the walls ability to move and flex out of the equation, which would make me wonder if just pouring a concrete wall to shoot over would have worked as well. I'm sure you considered this, so I'm interested to hear about your decision-making process in using an SRW.

[Bill Schwab]

The SRW was used to stabilze the bank. Grid was added every 3rd course, some over 25 feet back into the mountain. In this case, the SRW walls as actually set on a true footing (2436: concrete with a 4 strand cradle of #5 rebar set 12x20 apart.

The theme was to leave the slope a natural apparance, as though a canyon rocl wall had been dynamited out for a roadway.

They wanted the extra wall weight because it would actually hold more than a conrete, or shot crete wall, and shot crete actually does not have alot of strength in comparison to an SRW. The rough ugly 3 sided Keystone face made a great choice to blow the loads of shot crete, espeically with the batter used. It would have been pretty difficult to get any type of french drain behind a shot crete wall because there is no way for it to support itself without becoming a pile at the bottom of the ravine.

[PSUscaper]

Nac, give me a email....I have a guy in PA with some good looking boulders perfect for retaining walls....they are coming out of the Marshall Creek area.....great looking stuff.

You need to be upfront with the client here. The fact is, boulders are not cheap. I paid over $2300 for a tri-axel of moss rock a few weeks ago. Last time I did shot rock, I believe it was around 2k for a tri-axle, and that will not go far with the size of the wall you are building. You add the cost of the rocks, the cost of the trucking, and then the cost of setting the stones (need a big machine there and most of all, access for and work to clean up the mess after the big machine leaves)

I have a client I am pricing a job out for now who is insisting on a boulder wall....I told him straight out that any way you slice it, its going to cost money. People seem to think rocks are cheap....well, in new developments (which most these people live in) they are somewhat cheap....when they dig the house (more like blast it out around here) they have a lot of rock left over and have to use it somewhere.....plus they have a machine there already. People don't understand the difference between that and between you coming in to do a job like that after the house is built. The developments have all those rock walls because it was cheaper for the builder to stack them up and leave em rather than haul them away. People just don't get it.

Veneering is a great option, but you have to have a footing for that block wall.....I know some guys do it pretty cheap, but I could never come close to a veneered block wall compared to a srw.

You need to be upfront with this client and explain the situation. Rocks are not cheaper, and most of the time, are more expensive than srw when its all said and done.