All about Building Precast Retaining Walls

Precast retaining walls can be a great addition to your outdoor space such as your yard or garden by making it more attractive, more organized and more functional. Once you decide that you want to have some precast retaining walls built, you have the choice of having the job done by a contractor or a professional landscaper or doing it yourself. Keep in mind that although you can do the job yourself, before doing so, you would need to make sure that you know exactly what you need to do and that you have the right tools and equipment for the project. Here is a guide on how you can build a precast retaining wall in your garden.

First off, you need to prepare the area where the wall would be constructed through digging a trench that is of the same length as the wall. As for the width of trench, it should be equal to the width of your planned wall plus about six inches on both side to allow for extra room as you work.

You should then build the form. This is an important step to do before you construct the retaining wall itself. The form would be the mold where the cement would be poured into and should be built with the internal measurements equivalent to the final wall size.

You then have to place the rebar. In order to have added strength and sturdiness, you would have to add lengths of reinforcement rods or rebar. Drive the rebar in the ground every 18 inches. If you are planning to cap it with cement, you need to make sure that the rebar would be sticking up about an inch or so on top of the bottom edge of the spreaders.

Once the rebar is in place, you can then pour the cement. Depending on the size of the retaining wall you would be building, you can choose to mix the cement yourself or you can order it pre-mixed from a hardware or a landscaping supply store.