granite retaining wall

[nac]

I have a customer who wants 150'x2' exposed retaining wall built 3' off his property wall along his future driveway. The home owners wife does not like an product like keystone or teko block she picked out a thin granite veneer which cost $324/ton 20 cubic feet in a ton what is the right way of installing this? The supply company just said bury 4" and dry stack the wall 2 stone deep about 12" and mortar the last course. I think I have to dig 3' done pour a concrete footing come up wit block then step t back to create a shelf and install stone the same as brick. Any help would be appreciated also any help with price would be appreciated I am think about $50/sf so about $16,000.

[capital]

Have you looked into seeing if the granite she picked out is also cut as wallstone? IE thicker and higher so you can just dry stack it ?

[nac]

yes there is granite wall stone that is bigger but they do not like it they like the look of the small stones stacked to gether.

[D Felix]

If it's going to be drystacked, you don't need to install a footing.

Dig out about 10" below where final grade will be in front of the wall, add two 3" lifts of crushed gravel, compacting between lifts, then start stacking.

I'm not sure I would mortar anything, even the last course. But that's just me. If you do, I'd try to make it as minimal as possible, to keep the drystack look.

Try not to shim any of the stones. Any shimming that needs to be done should be done from the backside of the wall, they are more likely to stay in place that way. But avoid shimming if at all possible.

HTH.


Dan