Building a Backyard Retaining Wall

[Music] so one of the first steps is the demo work itself I'm taking the my time and getting rid of all the decorative rocks that I had lining the lengthwise of my backyard this was really kind of working as an edging system now I will say if you want to speed up this project and make a little bit less tedious on you I recommend getting yourself a wheelbarrow he took me about five years to convince my stuff spend the money on it but once you get it I tell you what it helps you with taking the dirt out the rocks bringing the new pavers in it's gonna take a little bit of a load off your back but trust me you're gonna appreciate it now to give yourself a guide to follow to ensure that you don't have a wonky slope or a low spot in your backyard as well as a straight edge I'd recommend running a string from one side of the yard to the other side and securing it make sure it's leveled and it's following the line that you'd go with then I'd use a little bit of marking paint on the ground this kind of be your secondary safety net in case the string was to break with the shovel once that's established then you started digging out a trench now these trenches when it comes to leaving paper stone or retaining walls they recommend between five and seven inches of digging in depth you get away with five but seven is kind of the gold standard once you get that done make sure that the width of the trench will accommodate your pavers that for the retaining wall which in my situation 14 just will do it now can't emphasize the importance of setting down a good foundation you want to lay down about four inches of road gravel mix make sure it has good solid rocks in there that will act as both strength but more than that as a water drainage system so when the ice or the snow melts or the rain accumulates or the sprinklers you can get in there the retaining wall won't be lifted up and moved out of place or even get wavy on you once everything is in place go over it with a tamper tamp everything down I believe this one's a nine inch that I got from a local home depot for the next layer you'll need to lay down one inch of masonry sand the sand acts both as a seat but also tool to level each stone as they're stacked one by one now you don't need to create this area to be super straight and flat so in this situation if you use a rake to kind of even out the areas to prevent it from having kind of high spots make sure you don't tamp this section down because you need it to be fluffed in order to actually see the bricks themselves alright so this is where it all comes down to the first layer is always the hardest in the most because it sets the tone and the pace for the rest of the wall if you screw up the first layer the rest of the wall is going to be crooked and it's just gonna follow that there's no fixing that so take your time and catch a breathe and really think what you're doing when it comes to installing or setting them gently place it right over the sand use a little torpedo or small little level to ensure that it's not tilting left to right or back to front once it's in place then it's set the rest of them kind of become a little bit easy in the sense that just but up the next one to the right of it or to the side of it and then work your way from making sure that it's balanced from that point on certain areas will need a little bit of extra love so use a little rubber mallet to give it a few taps to ensure that it sets right in place and then just continue your line making sure that it doesn't go above or below that string that you set up earlier [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] now retaining walls they fail for many reasons and almost all of them are due to inadequate water drainage that's why they recommend adding about 12 inches of gravel right behind the wall up to the very top of it to accommodate the flow of water that builds up there to drain now in certain situation depending on your layout you might even have to consider putting in a fenestrated pipe at the bottom to help out with that as well when I was finished with all the layers high capped off the wall using the Pro Mauro three by five by fourteen inch wall caps and I secured them by using a heavy-duty concrete adhesive that I got on my local Home Depot and it's very easy you got to make sure the area is dust free lay down a good bead and then start setting the caps exactly where they need to go they want to make sure that it's dry from any kind of rain for about 24 hours and then everything should be solid from there on [Music] hey thanks so much for watching this video it means the world to me like comment and share it with your friends if your brand the channel hit that subscribe button right there we put a video every single week cap that notification bell you'll be alerted every single time that video comes out make sure you follow me on social media I put a links down below in my description too now this week we'll see you guys next week see ya bye