Dig a trench about 6 inches wider than your wall.
Natural stone retaining wall with mortar.
This is high strength contractor grade and pre blended mortar.
Type s is the common choice for many below grade applications such as masonry foundations manholes retaining walls and sewers as well as at grade projects like brick patios and walkways.
Tamp the gravel in the bottom of the trench and pour at least 8 inches of concrete.
Remove the stone spread a trowelful of mortar on the wall and tamp the stone into it with a mallet.
This is also ideal for stone columns.
Building a retaining wall is suitable for diyers as long as the wall is a maximum of 3 feet tall in most areas.
A mortar wall must be built on a firm foundation or its joints will crack.
Anything taller should be handled by professionals.
Natural stone is often laid in a dry stack style without any mortar but mortar stabilizes the stones to keep them from falling off the wall.
If you re building a retaining wall use a blended mason mix which includes the heavy duty mortar type s masonry cement and graded sand.
Mortar is not always necessary but it is especially.
For projects that don t require a lot of mortar use smaller bags of mortar mix or concrete.
The easiest way to build a stone retaining wall is to use the dry stack method that requires no mortar between stones and does not need a concrete footing like mortared walls do.
The face stones visible edges should rest only on stone not mortar so scrape away any mortar that squeezes out.