# Forum Home Renovation Brickwork  how to slope down a brick retaining wall??

## wozzzzza

i cant work out how i can slope down a brick retaining wall. if you look at the picture below, i have a retaining wall that needs to be 39cm high and slope down to the driveway that is 14cm high through 1.8m and the paved path will be 3m wide that runs from left to right in the pic. the slope will be paved and needs to be sloped nicely with a curve. the tops cant have the corners of the bricks sticking up incase people trip over it.
the other picture below is the retaining wall i will use with blocks 30cm wide and 15cm high.
how to i go about curving the wall down? do i just curve the wall down somehow or step the wall down somehow and cut the corners off?
or do i just forget about the curved slope and do a straight slope with a sharp angle at the bending point at the post?

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## wozzzzza

gotta be someone here that knows how to pave this, surely??

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## Planned LScape

I would'nt lay the blocks to suit the slope (ie same decline), it ends up looking not that great. It is best to lay each block/brick level, and cut the top to suit, or step it down. 
You said you can't have the edges exposed, so you may have to lay the blocks level and step them down as you go down the slope, put a straighttedge over the tops on a decline that matches the slope, mark them and then cut the tops off. Then get some cappers for the blocks and lay them on top, and will go down the slope as they go past the bending point. 
The blocks will always look better if the joint lines are all level with one another

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## wozzzzza

these blocks dont have caps, and if it cutt he tops off it would leae a large hole.
im gonna draw it up in autocad and see if i can work it out.

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## namtrak

Maybe a pic of the site may make things a bit clearer. 
I am right in saying you have to drop the height of the retainers from 39cm down to 14 cm over a distance of 180 cm? 25cm in total?  Can you increase the height of the main wall to 49cm? This would give you the room to create the step down. 
As PL says, definitely don't run the retaining wall at a slope (just looks poor). 
Are you fixed to those heights, generally you would work backwards from the height you require on your last block and lay the balance of your retaining wall relative to that.  If its a retaining wall why is there a danger that people could trip over the blocks?   
As a matter of interest, do the company that make the blocks provide end blocks?

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## wozzzzza

increasing it to 49 would cause it to slope towards the house, and increase the fill required by about 5 tonne i reckon, i already need 18 tonne to fill it up to 39cm.
to trip over it, if people walked off the side instead of around, they could trip over the corners of the blocks that stick up off the slope.

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## namtrak

You don't necessarily need to have the fill upto the height of the retaining wall, could you make it a feature?  A lot of retaining walls sit proud. 
Could you run some mulch and garden behind the retaining wall?

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## wozzzzza

no another path is below it.   ive got a scaled drawing of what im wanting to do.  the white line is the paving level, the green box at the bottom is the ground level and the rectangle is a verandah post and the block sare my retaing wall.
it will look crap the way ive got it now i think.  i dont know what to do.

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## Planned LScape

If the block product you have chosen doesnt have a cap, you can always go to the local paving yard and select a close match, or, choose another block manufacturer that does have a finish capper to the blocks.  
To keep the wall from having protruding step downs, and keeping the courses level, the only way is to cut the top of the blocks on an angle to match the slope and then lay caps on top. Similar to a brick entrance to a driveway

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## sundancewfs

It might look better with the last block on the second course removed..... to even up the slope of the blocks. (looks like a digital vs analog problem  :Smilie:   )
I have used red brick on its edge to cap a block wall I built. It adds an extra feature of texture and colour. Try to think "outside the block". There maybe a different capping optin you havent thought about. Stone, brick, cobble, planter box, etc etc etc...

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