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Retaining Wall For Our Koi Pond

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1. We used 4" to 6" of sand, watered down to help it stick together with the drain pipe sunken in the sand about half way along the back of the blocks. The sand is tamped with a heavy block of wood (or use anything heavy), until it is packed down hard and is level using a transit, laser level, or level...

2. The first row of blocks is very critical to get level. We chose the Versa-Loc Square Foot retaining wall blocks, which are 70+ pounds each. The dimensions of the blocks are 16"long x 8"tall x 12"deep. The face of each block is equal to 1 square foot. The drawback to these blocks is they're hollow-core (can't cut some lengths), and there are no end blocks for each row.

3. The rest of the wall goes much quicker. The blocks are stepped back into the hill about a half-inch with each row. (1" step back possible too) The blocks a pinned together with two 6" to 8" pieces of rebar.

4. Almost five rows done.

5. The wall is back filled with #2 gravel about 6" to 12" deep behind the wall for drainage, and so there isn't any water freezing / thawing behind the wall.

6. Final seventh row of blocks.

7. The cap blocks were placed, but need to be cut and glued down.

8. Side view of the nearly finished retaining wall.