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This is the corner of the front retaining wall. I had run out of cheap mesh that I had bought and needed to fix up the corner. I had used the Bunnings large gabion cages 80*40*40cm gabion basket before and thought they would do the job, although a little higher then the home made version it was acceptable. Trying to match two rows nicely on top of each other can be a pain but I managed it with a lot of jiggling. (You can use one spiral to tie top and bottom [If you have two cages side by side then remove a spiral and only use one to tie them together] or two sides together to get a smoother look I have found)
The ground was softer at this end and that was also a concern. Thankfully nothing has shifted in the year that these have been in.
Materials
Broken up concrete rubble
Geo cloth
Tools
Shovel
Wheelbarrow
Pound Hammer
Long Nosed pliers
Bull Nosed pliers
Steps
Step 1
I had to remove the old Bessa block retaining wall. This wall had no foundation and no concrete fill or even rio tie bars in it. I was concerned with the soft soil being an issue with the weight in the cages and also the slope of the land.
Time to finish this wall. I have to remove the old bessa block wall and dig out the soil/clay.
Ahh The bunnings car park.... With the booty for the day!
Ready to get started. I originally thought 4 cages but decided on 5 all up due to the sharpness of the slope.
The wall came out easily with a crowbar. No foundation, only mortar holding it together.
Chunks of soapstone.
Dug out and levelled. I tamped it down with my tamp bar and was a little worried about the front edge as I had to build up the soil at that point.
Placing the cages to see how they would sit.
Level.... and then Id move them a little and have to re-level them.
Shows my concern over putting a gabion wall on "fill"
The other angle. Didnt need a lot more soil and I fixed it up with some clay.
Finally happy with the cages being level so I could start to fill the gabion baskets. Note the cloth which was re purposed upholstery material to stop fines working there way through the cage
My resource pile seems to be never ending. I used "yucky" looking stones at the back as they would be buried.
Step 2
Second stage was to fill and then align the top row of cages.
To align the cages at their joined edges remove one of the spirals and use the one spiral to join the aligned edges. I have a pic further along that will show it I hope.
Filling the cages. I filled them evenly so they would not shift on me. Also wanted to make sure that they settled in the same plane as I had placed them
No stay wires so they did bulge a little. I used the ratchets and the pound hammer to gently adjust the concrete pieces.
First cage done, second almost done.
Just to show how I used the ratchets to help with doing the spirals up. I used my hands mostly and then a long nosed pair of pliers and Bull nosed pair of pliers to contine the turning of the spirals when it got hard.
This is to give an example of how to join two sides together to make it look professional. This is two complete cages. The bottom spiral of the top cage and the top spiral of the rock filled cage are just sitting next to each other. If I filled the cages it would "kink" by a cm or so and not be a smooth join.
If I instead remove the bottom spiral from the top cage and then use the spiral from the rock filled cage to wind through the four sections of the cage (top vertical, top flat middle, bottom flat top and bottom vertical.) The front then would look almost seamless. (You could also skip the base of the top basket doing it this way.)
Trying to align them (This is before I worked out how to do it smoothly. It took me forever to get top and bottom cages in the correct positions.)
Happy with the placement and filled both cages evenly so they wouldnt kink.
End of day so called it an evening. You can see the difference in height but it was something I could live with. I hadnt figured that when I made the three large walls originally.
Step 3
I thought I could get away with just two on each side of the corner but found the ground too steep for me to be happy with that. So I added another basket to the side. I was also concerned with the softness of the soil so I again tamped it down hard.
If you look at the edge of the cages you can see how they are just sitting on top and not physically joining. It took a lot of adjustment to get them in place before filling the top baskets. The second way I have described is a lot faster and cleaner looking.
Pulling in the edge so I can spiral the lid on. It is surprisingly easy to spiral the lid on using the ratchets.
Nice rocks on the facing sides and ugly ones in the middle was the rule. As this was the top cage both front and back of the cage would be able to be seen at the top of it.
Deciding that yes another cage was needed (I wanted to save money by not having to purchase another but wiseness won.)
The soil was a lot softer digging it out. I wasnt too concerned as it was only going to be a cage high.
The ramp. Yet to be paved. I was happy with the placement. If done again I should really have used two smaller 40*40*40 cages to give the interlocked brick effect.
Always interesting how it bulges and I swear the cages are not packed down.
A bit of a kink but can live with that.
All done! In the year its been in nothing has shifted. We have had some decent rainfall events and a lot of hot summer days. (I have grown tomatoes against the front of the wall and they flourished even with the wind)
