In many places around the world, it is in style to make the walls out of stones. This type of retaining wall is used to make from slab bricks. You will get environmental benefits by installing these retaining wall stones to your home. It will also give your home an aesthetic look. It serves to increase their durability and getting to make up with the erosion and the proper drainage of water during heavy rainfall. These walls make more space of either garden or any place usable, which is beneficial for the owner of the house. Though it is very laborious to make these walls, in the long run, if maintained properly, these are worth the labor. These stones are made of concrete and the finishing is good-looking which makes it look decorative.
These walls are called mainly the retaining walls. Maintenance of the retaining wall stones is the thing which should be thought about from the time of construction.
Some of The Ways in Which These Wall Stones Can Be Maintained Are as Follows:
#1. Durability: to increase the durability of the walls, a harder stone such as granite should be used, though there are other choices available. But very soft stones like sandstone and limestone will undergo wear and tear rapidly. These are also affected by pollution.to maintain the resistance against strong voluminous winds and fires, harder stones need to be used.
#2. Regular Checking: these should be checked every day in order to ensure the intactness of the mortar and retaining wall stones. If some amount of this also assembles, it should be wiped out immediately. Now, these walls should be repointed so that they do not leave the joints open because that is more susceptible to the harshness of water. The sides of these are the sites for the intensive growth of different bushes and plant vegetation. These should not be allowed to accumulate in its vicinity. This can help to increase the durability of the wall.
#3. Maintenance in Long Term: after the season of winter, these walls need to be taken care of. These should be repaired on a yearly basis in a way that they will be strong and also do not come in the way of modern vehicles. This makes retaining wall stones easy.
#4. Flints: local chalk formation often sees digging out of certain sandy formations. These should not be used to make the walls. Repairs here need to be done with similarly sized flints placed in similar positions and style.
#5. Water Repellent Treatments: if a waterproof coat is given on any kind of building stone, then it will be unnecessary. On the other hand, what we should do is introduce different kinds of outlet pipes to let the water of rain or damp to be passed out through these pipes just like the downpipes and flashings.
#6. Stone Cleaning: the area which gets to have a great amount of pollution, their stone walls need to be cleaned from time to time. The stone has a property of attracting dust, which disfigures the stones. We should use only water cleaning procedures because other detergents and abrasives can cause damage to the walls.
#7. Galletting: if some regions of the stones are soft, and then small stones called the galettes are inserted into these to maintain the durability. This makes retaining wall stones easy.
#8. Investigation of Bulges and Cracks in Stone Walls: bulges and cracks are a threat to retaining wall stones a bulge means a swollen area which indicates some grave problem and hence demands prior attention. These can result from the damage of the flints and also if the stone is not fitting properly in the wall and so has come forward. Hidden wooden pieces can also be delayed and thus unable to perform their functions. These can also result in bulges. Structural failure of the wall can result in cracks which can be maintained.
These are some of the basic procedures of maintaining or retaining wall stones.
