Building A Hypertufa Retaining Wall

There are tons of gardening decorations that you can do using hypertufa and one of them is a retaining wall for your garden. A hypertufa retaining wall is ideal since they are able to resist the extreme winter temperature, for up to -30°C. They are also good to look at as they can give your garden a more natural stone visual appeal. Although hypertufas are normally light, certain ingredients can be added to ensure they are more heavier and tougher for the purpose of creating a retaining wall.

To construct a hypertufa retaining wall, you should modify the basic formula that is frequently used: combine 2 parts Portland cement, 2 parts perlite, 1½ parts peat moss, ½ part coarse sand, and a little bit of nylon fiber mesh. The coarse sand will make your hypertufa heavier than the usual and the fiber mesh will improve the structural integrity of your construction, so that it is suitable for a retaining wall.

The subsequent procedure is to locate the mold for the blocks that will be used for your retaining wall. You need to think about the spot where you will be setting your retaining wall so that you will have an idea of the dimensions of the mold that you will need. You can use shoe boxes as molds although if you think maybe that they are not applicable, it's possible to create your own mold using wood, cardboard, or styrene foam used for house insulation. You may also dig block-shaped holes in the ground and cover them with plastic for your mold. Just remember that you will want to have as much molds as possible. You will need a lot of blocks for a retaining wall and it requires considerable time in order to cure a hypertufa so it is perhaps a good idea to construct all of the required blocks in one batch.

After your hypertufa blocks have been fully cured and are completely ready to be installed, you ought to make a mortar mix to keep them together. For that you will have to combine 1 part Portland cement, acrylic fortifying base, 2 parts builders sand, 1/2 part clay soil with clods broken up, 1/2 part peat moss or black potting soil, and water. Then line up a layer of your hypertufa blocks, put on the mortar mix on the top of the layer, and repeat the procedure until you have put together the retaining wall.