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A weekend project for two in all its simplicity
The old retaining wall
The reason for the project was that we had a gravel slope on the side of the house and as you can see in the picture, the existing "retaining wall" was not in particularly good condition, which meant that the gravel fell downwards when you walked and it was also very slippery. An important part of the project was that it could be carried out by me and my partner ourselves with the tools/resources that were available at home. It worked out well, even if we had to make an extra trip to Stenbolaget considering that we needed about 70 pieces of Haga mini and the car only held a little more than thirty... The preparatory work involved digging out the surface on which the retaining wall would rest and fill this with gravel so that it is level and also make a space for the stairs.
The retaining wall is starting to take shape
After the preparatory work was finished, we started laying the bricks on the graveled surface. With a spirit level and a rule, we ensured that the wall was straight in all directions. Every second layer of stone required two "half" stones, which was arranged with an angle grinder equipped with a diamond disc. Since the Haga mini 2013 has a heel at the back, no mortar or similar was needed to join the bricks together, but to take care of the natural wall that was on one side in the form of a mountain, we had to use concrete to attach the brick in a stable way on the mountain.
Stairs and capstone
As stairs, we chose four concrete block steps. In order to get a nice, straight, corner towards the stairs that also matched the intended top stones, I sawed six pieces of Avväkking Vaxholm with the angle grinder and then attached these with Konstruktionglum (PU700). Once the stairs were in place, we finished building the wall and behind each row of stones we filled up with macadam to get a stable, well-drained, wall. Then the top stones (Uncovering Vaxholm) were placed in place. Construction glue was also used here to attach the stones.
The end result was exactly as we imagined
The end result was exactly as we imagined, although the wall was slightly higher than expected and it took a long weekend to complete the project rather than a weekend. We also succeeded in the goal of carrying out the project ourselves and only with the tools that were available at home (shovel, shovel, wheelbarrow, angle grinder, spirit level and our car) as well as materials from Stenbolaget (Haga mini 2013 Graphite, Uncovering Vaxholm Graphite, Blocksteg Concrete 700, Macadam, Paving single and Construction glue).
