We put a stop to our erosion problem with just a few concrete bags.
Cement bag concrete bag retaining wall.
Cob buildingbuilding a houseearth bag homesearthship homenatural homesnatural buildinground housediy homeoutdoor projects.
So diyers have come up with an interesting trick.
A simple cost effective way to make a retaining wall is to stack 60 lb.
Building a retaining wall in the conventional ways above is not a trivial matter.
We re using a dry bag method stacking in courses and stabilizing wit.
Concrete runs about 4 bucks a bag and at height of 3 or so would require a good number to provide 3 feet of wall.
Set it back about a half to a quarter inch so the wall will lean gently into the hill.
There is no mixing or forming required simply stack the bags as described in the usage instructions.
Over time the bags will degrade and you will have an elegant and permanent retaining wall.
Offset the next row by about half or a third of the length of the concrete bag while stacking it on top of the first row.
Rip rap is also available in a biodegradable polyester scrim reinforced kraft bag for improved durability.
They look like sandbags but are actually hessian bags filled with wet concrete and pinned together with steel rods making a good solid retaining wall.
Video of the day.
There are block retaining walls stone retaining walls and poured concrete retaining walls but these can be quite complicated and expensive.
That s right the idea is that you don t open the packaging.
Rip rap is a sand and cement mixture packaged in a biodegradable kraft bag designed for erosion control applications.
Friends old and new show up and help us put up the first section of our retaining wall.
From a cost perspective basic wall blocks would look much better and be cheaper you could set them up as a pair if you need to extend beyond the 2 foot height limit.
The 2020 update is now up today june 15 2020 a 5 5 minute video update about my concrete bag retaining wall it s a real nail biter.
See how well it works in part 2.
Rather than messing around with mortar they lay the walls down like lego pieces using concrete while it s still in the bag.