Add Hardscaping Elements to your Backyard Redesign

by Kevin Smith Author

When renovating a backyard space, you want to include landscape elements of grass, trees, and shrubs. But you also need something called hardscape elements. Hardscaping is the building of patios, walkways, and retaining walls. A good landscape design blends the grass, trees, and shrubs with hardscape elements such as retaining walls. A retaining wall can serve the practical purpose of holding back dirt to create a flat space for a patio, and also be the boundary where grass, trees, and shrubs are planted in a landscape bed.

A Popular Hardscape Element

Retaining walls are a popular part of a hardscape in Dacula. Retaining walls are usually built out of stone or wood for a natural look. Stone walls can be made from manufactured brick with mortar between the joints for a polished look. Or stone walls can be made from stacked stones for a completely natural look. Eight-foot rough-hewn wood timbers or longer milled pressure treated wood can be used to construct wood retaining walls.

How to Build a Retaining Wall

For this example, let’s discuss building a short straight wall made from milled pressured-treated 4 x 6 lumber. Assume you’ve dug out the area already and need to put the wall it to keep the dirt secure.

Twelve inches way from edge of the wall of dirt, dig a trench approximately 8 inches wide and 4 inches deep. This trench must be level. Dig down 4 inches and then with a level make sure you don’t have any high or low spots. You want your base to be level, or your wall will not be level when finished – and an unlevel wall is an eye-sore.

Starting at one end of the wall, place your first 4x6 piece of lumber in the trench. Place the level on the board to make sure you are still level. Walk along the lumber to make sure it doesn’t wobble. Once it is secure, set the next piece of 4x6 lumber in the trench end-to-end with the piece you just laid. You do not need to connect the two pieces.

Let’s say the overall length of your wall is 12 feet. If the first piece of lumber you set down was 8 feet, you’ll need to cut a 4-foot piece for the second piece. This will complete your first row.

Staggering Joints

For wall strength, you’ll want to stagger your joints for the rest of the rows until you reach the top of the wall. To do this, for your next row cut and place a 3-foot section of lumber at the end of the wall. Then place an 8-foot piece, and then a 3-foot section. (3+8+3=12 for overall wall length.) After you’ve completed three rows, staggering the joints, line up the front edges of each piece of lumber so the edges are perfectly aligned. Then from on top, every four feet drill a 3/8-inch hole that is 8 inches deep and drive an 8-inch long galvanized spike inside the hole. This will hold the lumber together. Follow this pattern until you reach the top area of the wall to complete this element of hardscape in Dacula.