rocks encased in a wire cage to support a bank of earth

get concrete slab reinforcement mesh cut with bolt croppers / chop saw / angle grinder assemble, bending the cut ends round to joint pour in rocks, rubble, whatever.

To economise, put nice stones on the outer sides and fill the rest with concrete rubble.

Still havent remembered the name for these things...

NT

Gabion

Yes...

Ok...

??? With a chop saw??

Gabion walls

Most of the "gabions" I've seen are made with galvanised mesh, like chicken wire on steroids.

Gabions F. H. Brundles.

| | | | who are the best suppliers or builders of a wall with |rocks encased in a wire cage to support a bank of earth. | |can it be D.I.Y is it difficult to make ?? what are they called |and are there any alternative's |any good web sites... |thanks in advance

Anything is better than those except for a quick bodge were it does not really matter. Close to us they put those in supporting a high bank to a small stream with *houses* on top of the bank. After about a year the whole pile collapsed, and the houses, while still there, are unsalable. Difficult to see what *anybody can do about the shambles. I would not touch anything where those were used.

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Gabions.

The message from Dave Fawthrop contains these words:

Major earthworks and lots of concrete, I expect.

The technique does not seem completely unsound, if the wire mesh is properly specced, the rocks properly graded, and the calculations done.

If you wrap smooth rocks in chickenwire, and put a house on top, ...

re gabions:

then the project was not competently engineered.

NT

I think cutoff saw was what I was reaching for.

NT

I think cutoff saw was what I was reaching for. Recommended for the larger wire sizes.

NT

There are plenty of alternatives. A gabion is nothing more than a lazy man's dry stone wall and I have serious doubts about the mesh used to make them....I have seen large ones (4ft cubes) used at a roadside near here and with saplings planted on the foot or so of soil on top, the overall plan here is probably for the trees themselves to take charge once the gabions have disintegrated by holding everything together with their roots, something they are quite good at.

You could build a wall, either with brick, blocks, concrete or a mixture of all three...how high is the bank of earth you are trying to hold back? - what's holding it back now?

I had a retaining wall built of girders and railway sleepers (I ignored Cormaics advice to use gabions). The walls started failing the first Winter, as a result I had to go through a solicitor to get the builder back to correct the problem. Driving up, for example, up the M6 you will see examples of gabions holding up very severe drops.