# Forum Home Renovation Retaining Walls  Timber for top of retaining wall

## vGolfer

I have built a retaining wall in my garden that is roughly 2 feet high, approx 6  inches wide and made out of concrete blocks. I was thinking of either tiling the  top or laying a piece of nice thick chunky timber along the top as de facto  seating (similar to image below).    
Can anyone recommend a good timber for something like this...and also a good place in Melbourne to get something like this? 
Cheers
<o :Tongue: ></o :Tongue: >

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## Dusty

I can highly recommend Urban Salvage. 
Which can be found right *HERE*

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## Dan574

Or try this mob,  http://www.australianrecycledtimber.com/ 
It depends what colours you have already there,  any australian hardwood would look awesome.

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## vGolfer

Thanks for that...we've got glossy blue gum floors in our house...maybe some recycled blue gum would look good...

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## UteMad

We did one the other week with photo,s below... One of the things to look at is the quality of the timber ie straghtness cup twist etc.. a 2 inch thick slab will have a mind of its own and you wont be able to force it down onto the brick wall no matter how you try.. if you try it will break and lift the wall at the bed joint . find good flat timber and pack and eurethene it so it sits perfectly happy on the wall without fixings then fix it to avoid movement only .. do not try to correct the timbers natural way as you wont win..       
we used merbau for this one but you will need to clean and seal it to minimise stainage on the wall... chamfer all edges and ends also as it will hide the fact the timber isn't exactly the same size cup etc  
cheers utemad

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## vGolfer

That looks great Ute...exactly what I am looking at doing. 
I was thinking of having it sit on some type of poly based material to get the levels and then fix to stop movement. 
One question...where the right angles meet, is it best to do as you have done or mitre the corners?

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## SilentButDeadly

Nice job, Ute. 
vGolfer, stay with the corner style that Ute applied. It's easier to do for starters plus it is a stronger hold. It also prevents the triangular shape in the timber that will inevitably wrap and weft its way out of alignment and stab you and your mates in the backside.   
As for the tie down.....one could use some sort of stuffing to ensure the levels but use something solid that won't compress.  Besides any decent sized timbers WILL find their own levels.  Just remember to make the holes through the timber oversized so that the screw itself just holds the timber down rather than being positively engaged with the timber...

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## UteMad

Yeah as said steer clear of mitres as they look @@@@@ in a few months when the timber adjusts to the climate of the site plus hwd this size is finished like architraves in its size... 
What we did to fix it to the wall was to pack the timber so it sat flat on the wall without fixings using horse shoe plastic packers.. once we had it right i glued the packers in place with eurethane ( easy to get sellys liquid nails landscape ) 
The screws i used were 100mm 14 gauge stainless bugel screws .. drill a pilot big enough for the screw to slip through the timber freely.. Drill a hole in the wall and put in a plug to suit so for 14g either a ramset plug or blue raw plug 
Use glue dollops on the wall so you are confident the timber will make frequent contact and not want to rock around as the fixings are for placement only 
Screw the screws in and enjoy  
Hope it makes sense was a fast bit of typed @@@@@ 
Cheers utemad

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