Look Who it Was Random video

Build an Interlocking Garden Wall

2,687 views · Published 11 August 2015 · 6:13 · Indexed 6 October 2026

Channel: HouseCalls · 2015 · Howto & Style

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Learn how to build a garden wall with interlocking concrete pavers. Get instructions along with tips, materials, and tools lists.
Visit Ron Hazelton's website for more home improvement projects: http://www.ronhazelton.com/

Transcript:

My next stop in the City of Angels takes us to the home of Rebecca Wink and her husband, Tom Barns.  Rebecca is a semi-retired actress and organizational expert.  Tom works for an environmental consulting firm.  Today, the environment commanding the couple's attention is their backyard. I'm going to help them kick off their landscaping efforts with a new garden wall.
 
Good morning.
 
Hi.
 
Good, how are you?
 
I'm Rebecca.
 
Hey, Rebecca.
 
Hi, I'm Tom.
 
Hey, Tom. Pleasure to meet you guys.
 
Welcome. So this is it.
 
This is the wall, huh?
 
Yep.
 
OK, gosh, these look like they're almost just stacked up here.
 
Well, they really are.  Umm the previous owners had looked like they'd started a wall and then they left a bunch of bricks and I just kind of stuck them there just to make it look a little better in the meantime.
 
Well, here's what I'm thinking.   Um, this is a fairly good grade right here.  I think this wall needs to be a little bit more substantial.  So what I'm going to propose is that we take all the bricks out and use some slightly heavier and wider blocks, interlocking blocks.
 
Now, these are the blocks that we're going to use for today's wall.  They just simply stack one on top of another one, two, three and so on.  Actually, these can get quite high.  They don't use any mortar, instead, they rely upon this lip right here on the rear edge.  This hooks over the rear edge of the row below, so what you get is sort of a stepped back effect right here and this can resist a lot of pressure from the rear side.  It simply won't topple over.
 
The first order of business is removing what's left of the old wall.
 
You guys have got a wheelbarrow or a wagon or something like that.
 
We have a little radio flyer.
 
I'll take it. OK.
 
All right, guys, boy does this take me back to my childhood,  I used to have one of these.
 
You know what? Let's just dig in.
 
Brick after brick lifts out easily as we work our way down the wall.
 
I know,
 
Isn't it fun though?
 
Things get a little tougher, though, as we reach the bottom and we resort to a sledgehammer.
 
Let's see if we can break some of this loose.
 
You know, this is really one of these tools that works with gravity.  What I usually do is start with my hand up here near the head and as I bring it up over my head like this, I let this hand come down and at this point, it's just gravity that's doing all the work. All right.
 
OK.  Let's give it a shot.  You might want to stand back!
 
OK?
 
Rebecca quickly strikes a rapport with this new tool.
 
Beautiful.
 
Get out all my aggression.
 
Hahaha
 
After removing the rubble, we clear the dirt back almost a foot from the edge of the grass.  Since we're going to reuse this dirt later on, I've laid a tarp down to keep it off the grass.
 
We have a little bit of an unusual situation here.  We've got this concrete, I don't even know what that is, maybe it's the remnants of a retaining wall, maybe it is a retaining wall, the top of it, but I'm not sure, but we can't get this out.  So what we're going to do is we'll use that as a sort of foundation for these blocks that we're about to put down.
 
We use two stakes and a length of string to make sure our wall is straight and level.
 
OK, Rebecca, could you bring that first stone and then plop it right down there on top of that concrete ledge? OK?  These are the stones we're going to be using. I'll show you a little bit more about these in a second, but right now I want to stretch a line out here.
 
Tom, you tie the other end down on a stake there and bring it up so the top of the string is just at the top of the stone.  Now we're going to tie this off the same way.  This will be the top of the first course of stone.  If we can get this in straight and flat and reasonably level, then everything else that we put on top of that's going to be in good shape.
 
Tom, this is great. Rebecca begins to put down the first layer of stones.  I scrape a clear path and Tom tamps the dirt down, compacting it as much as possible to prevent settling later on.  The wall is coming along nicely, not even a sudden shower can dampen our progress.
 
OK,
 
I just want to know who wrote that song "it never rains in Southern California"
 
I don't know, but he was crazy.
 
He was wrong.
 
The second layer of stones is laid in place in a matter of minutes, as we reach one end, though, it's obvious the final stone will have to be cut to fit the remaining space.  We have a small space over here, actually a half a block, that we're going to have to fill.

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