There is something so intensely satisfying watching a skilled guy working away industriously and enjoying what they are doing! And I just love it when you pick up a stone and exclaim "Oh Hello!" as if greeting a long-lost friend! Love the manner in which you matter-of-factly impart you knowledge - "You don't want to rock front to back, but it's ok to rock side-by-side" Priceless Josh, thanks a lot!
I have learned so much with all your explanations and watching that I feel very confident I could produce some beautifully crafted walls, like you do :)
Hi Josh, I am planning to rebuild a flagstone retaining wall. It will be approximately 4 ft at tallest point, and I am hoping for it to support a 12x15ft cement slab that will have a flagstone patio set in mortar on top of it. I should mention this will be built on a slope so it will essentially be a raised flagstone patio supported by a flagstone retaining wall. I have some questions I would like to run by you. First, is a flagstone retaining wall likely going to be strong enough to support this design? Or this destined to fail? I have an array of stones varying between 1-8 inches thick 1-2.5 ft wide and approximately 20-200 lbs. If this is possible, do you have any general recommendations on the design? For instance, should I dry stack them or should I use mortar or an adhesive between the stones during construction? I really want the flagstone at the top to be flush with the patio and to protrude partially over the edge of the retaining wall. Maybe just a couple inches at most, so that it looks like one continuous patio with no border or break. To acheive this look I was planning to glue a cap stone that would be flush with the stone on the patio, and mortaring between the top layer of stones for a consistent look spanning the patio edge to edge. Lastly, what do you recommend for drainage? I was thinking of doing 4-6 inches of 3/4 clear stone behind the retaining wall and a drain tile pipe at the bottom. Your videos are very insightfuI! Love the great content! Hope to hear back from you!
Thanks for watching. Dry stone is always better if you’ve got the good stone and a 4ft high wall is perfect. All depends on your confidence. Drainage sounds fine but if you were looking to use mortar you could always build a block wall and clad but your stone seems big so no need especially if you dry stone then your drainage is sorted. If your using big flagstone you should have a problem but would go over the edge too much maybe 2 inch max if you’ve got big slabs. Sounds like a lovely job! 👍
