ᐅ What is the purpose of gravel behind a dry-stone retaining wall?

Hello everyone,

I am currently building a dry stone wall. The wall has wide, open joints in every course.

My question is: Do I really need to backfill the entire height with gravel (as many guides recommend)? Since there are open joints everywhere, the water should be able to drain, so why fill the whole height with gravel (wall height 1m (3 ft 3 in))? Would it not be sufficient to backfill only about 20cm (8 inches) of gravel?

I’m asking because the wall is about 20m (66 ft) long, and there is around 40cm (16 inches) of space behind it down to the natural soil. I would need a lot of gravel if I were to backfill it all.

Thanks for your advice and tips.

Regards

simon1516

simon1516 schrieb:

I am currently building a dry stone wall. The wall has wide, open joints in all rows.
My question: Do I really need to backfill with gravel all the way up to the full height (as many guides suggest)? [...]
I’m asking because I have a 20m (65.6 ft) long wall and about 40cm (16 inches) of space behind it before the soil starts. That would require a lot of gravel if I backfill the entire space.

??? You want to build a dry stone wall with a 40cm (16 inches) air gap in front of a soil mass???
By the way, dry stone walling is a skill few bricklayers master these days – I can’t really imagine it working well if done just “by the book” like an apprentice’s magic trick.

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Give it a try. If there is waterlogging, you will notice it in the plants behind the wall.

What is a dry stone wall?

A wall without mortar, concrete, cement, etc.

@Zaba12, this is our dry stone wall. It’s nothing extraordinary for a garden. We only backfilled with soil. The wall is 60cm (24 inches) and 40cm (16 inches) high; at 1m (39 inches) height, it might become critical, and you would need to use stones that fit better than the rather rough granite we used.