Most often used as retaining walls, gabion walls are effective and inexpensive, as well as labor-intensive to build.
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Even if you&#;ve never heard the term, you&#;ve probably seen a gabion wall. The word gabion comes from the Italian gabbione, or &#;big cage,&#; and gabion walls are just that &#; wire mesh cages filled with loose stone (also called riprap), gravel, or other masonry material.
We know &#; you&#;re now saying to yourself, &#;So that&#;s what they&#;re called!&#; Read on to learn more.
What Is a Gabion Wall?Gabion walls are most frequently used as retaining walls or as tall, vertical walls in industrial settings, such as bridges, embankments and seawalls. Gabion walls are often stepped or built at a slant to better retain the soil behind them.
Retired construction worker Alcide Trincia used to build gabion walls with his father, often after a flood or landslide. Today, you&#;ll still see gabion walls in coastal or riverine areas to control erosion, or even to divert the flow of a body of water.
In residential settings, gabion walls appear as retaining walls, privacy fences or decorative landscaping elements in a garden or yard.
Gabion Wall Pros&#;Gabion walls are made of inexpensive materials and can be built quickly with the right equipment,&#; says Paolo Marchetti, who runs a construction company in central Italy. &#;That&#;s part of the reason you see them used so often in industrial settings, like roads and areas prone to flooding.&#;
According to Marchetti, these are the biggest advantages to gabion walls:
They&#;re inexpensive. Materials usually consist of wire mesh and fill matter, which may be rock, crushed concrete or leftover construction materials like brick and tile. &#;To make a gabion wall look nicer but still save money,&#; says Marchetti, &#;you can use cast-off construction material in the middle of the wall, and better quality material, like tumbled stones, on the outside.&#;
They&#;re good for drainage. Because they&#;re porous, gabion walls are well-suited to retaining soil or terrain that requires drainage. Marchetti installed a gabion wall to stop erosion of land routinely waterlogged in rainy season. &#;Because water can flow right through the wall,&#; he says, &#;the gabion system was the best solution.&#;
They don&#;t crack. Erosion from wind and water, seismic activity and the sheer weight of the earth behind it will eventually take their toll on the sturdiest of retaining walls. Because they have no solid surface and are built with flexible but resistant wire mesh, gabion walls don&#;t crack, and won&#;t collapse unless their wire cage breaks.
The gabion walls Trincio built with his father lasted up to 30 years. But today, he explains, with galvanized wire and mesh, he says a gabion wall can last &#;40, 50 or 60 years.&#;
They&#;re a greener solution. We like this best of all. Because they don&#;t require cement or timber and often use otherwise discarded materials, gabion walls have a lot smaller carbon footprint than other retaining wall solutions.
Gabion Wall ConsBefore you rush out and order rolls of wire and a truckload of rocks with plans to redesign your backyard, keep in mind that gabion walls aren&#;t for everyone. &#;Gabion walls aren&#;t complicated to build from a technical standpoint,&#; says Marchetti, &#;but they&#;re also just a lot of work physically.&#; Here are the downsides of gabion walls:
They&#;re highly labor-intensive. Building the wire cages (or buying ready-made cages) is relatively easy. Filling them with stones, gravel or busted-up cement is back-breaking labor, especially if you&#;re working with hand tools like a shovel, buckets and wheelbarrows. &#;The higher the wall gets,&#; says Marchetti, &#;the harder it is to do the job with just manual labor.&#;
They may require heavy equipment. If your gabion wall project involves a large, long wall or one with multiple steps and elevation change, you might need to call in the heavy machinery. &#;It&#;s a lot easier to dump the fill material into the wall with a backhoe than it is with a shovel,&#; says Marchetti.
Trincia recalls building a sizable gabion wall by hand with his father and advises against it. &#;You&#;d never build a large gabion wall without a backhoe,&#; he says.
They&#;re not always that attractive. Let&#;s be honest. Gabion walls are functional and inexpensive, but they&#;re not always the prettiest solution. Their industrial look may not blend well with the rest of your yard or garden. With some creativity, however, you may come up with gabion wall ideas that suit your style and even become a focal point.
How To Build a Gabion WallGabion walls can go up fast because unlike other types of retaining walls, they usually don&#;t need a poured cement footer.
&#;If you&#;re building on flat ground that&#;s not composed of clay, which will settle under the weight of the wall, you can get by without a foundation,&#; Marchetti says. If the ground is soft or mostly clay, dig down until you reach more compact earth, and fill the excavated space with a layer of gravel.
Building a simple gabion wall involves clearing the area and marking where the wall will go. The cage features sheets of heavy-duty wire mesh or PVC-coated steel wire tied together with galvanized wire to form a rectangle. (For smaller projects, you can buy ready-made gabion cages.) Once the cage is set in place, the fill material is inserted and the top of the cage wired into place.
More complicated tall or stepped walls require more planning, plus a buddy with a backhoe. &#;Stepped walls usually mean a lot of excavation beforehand to carve out the area the wall will occupy,&#; Marchetti says.
Tall walls, he says, feature cages stacked on top of one another. Along with long walls, they might require supporting rebar rods set in a concrete base, as well as wire cross-braces to help the wall hold its shape.
How Much Do Gabion Walls Cost?Depending on the type of fill material, gabion walls are one of the cheapest retaining walls you can build, ranging from $5 to $40 per square foot installed. While they&#;re doable as a DIY project, Marchetti recommends that if you&#;re building on your own, stick to less-ambitious projects, like lower walls and those with fewer running feet.
&#;It&#;s not so much a question of skill as it is labor,&#; he says. &#;It takes a long time to fill a gabion wall by hand and it&#;s exhausting work.&#; And your energy and enthusiasm for the project might run out well before that wall is filled.
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Gabion baskets have become more and more popular in the last few years. They&#;re available in various designs, sizes, filling, anchoring&#; Needless to say, all these aspects have an influence on the price. In this article you&#;ll get to know more about the price of gabion baskets and discover useful money-saving tips and other interesting facts.
The price of gabion baskets depends on different factors. Below you can find a handy overview.
On of the most important aspects that has a big influence on the price of gabion baskets is their size. They&#;re available in practically every size, thanks to the wire mesh or netting that is very easily custom made.
The more you want to &#;close off&#; your garden, the bigger your gabion baskets are going to be, and that influences the price of course!
What&#;s also different for every basket is the thickness of the wire and the size of the mesh. Your choice is probably going to depend on the type of stone filling you want to use. Bigger stones mean bigger mesh. Keep in mind that your gabion baskets cannot be too shallow. Otherwise they won&#;t be stable and that doesn&#;t look very good.
Recommended price of gabion baskets:
(Prices strongly differ, depending on the supplier and/or expert)
Wondering about the exact price of gabion baskets according to your preferred sizing?
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The smaller types of gabion baskets (e.g. 3 ft length x 1.6 ft depth) can be placed freely on a sturdy ground. In case of bigger baskets, you&#;ll need to anchor them into the ground, so they don&#;t fall over or collapse.
This can be done by anchoring hardwood or metal posts into the ground or a concrete base. The baskets are in turn placed over these posts. By filling up the baskets, the posts become invisible.
Recommended price for anchoring:
This depends on whether or not you&#;ll be calling in an expert. If you have the necessary knowledge and experience, it&#;s possible to do the job yourself. But it&#;s still recommended to call an expert. That way you&#;re guaranteed of having a quality product, and at the same time you avoid problems and extra costs in the future because of bad placement. Every expert has their own prices, which makes it that much harder to estimate a price beforehand.
Tip: compare different price offers from various professionals. That way you can not only better compare prices, but designs, advice, materials and deadlines.
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The most commonly used fillings are natural stones, such as quarry stone or loose boulders. Think about stones like basalt, greywacke, Yellow stone, Icy blue&#; Of course, you don&#;t have to choose stones. You can go for glass, wood, ceramics, recycled materials, etc. Anything is possible! And if you get tired of one filling, you can always change it to something else over time.
Tip for cheap gabion baskets: go for natural materials like treebark. It has a natural effect, and is above all budget-friendly.
Letting your baskets be completely filled up by hand can be more expensive, because of the more expensive, labour-intensive work. Of course, in turn you get a nice and tight result. Loosely poured gabion baskets are done mechanically, which makes the cost a bit lower but the result sloppier.
Recommended price for stones:
If you go for a stone filling, you can expect prices around £0.20 &#; 0.60 per pound. Filling your baskets with glass is a good deal more expensive.
Curious about the exact price of gabion baskets with your preferred filling?
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Choosing standard issue gabion baskets are obviously cheaper than those with extra features. Flower boxes, waterfalls, lights&#; can all be build into the basket, for a price of course.
Recommended prices for extra&#;s:
Want to place your gabion baskets with one or two of these extra features?
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If you have the right knowledge, experience and tools, you can always try and place those gabion baskets yourself. This will indeed seem like the most profitable option for your wallet, in the short term that is.
But seeing as the execution has a big influence on the look and durability of gabion baskets, it&#;s vital that this is done properly. Especially the bigger gabion baskets need to be placed perfectly, so they don&#;t fall over or collapse.
A professional contractor possesses the right experience and necessary materials to place your baskets well, in any material or design you want. So in order to be completely guaranteed of long-term quality, it&#;s recommended to call in an expert.
Comparing prices pays off! Ask our various experts for quotes and choose the offer that best fit your situation and needs.
&#; your free quotes form acknowledged garden contractors near you.
If you want to learn more, please visit our website Welded Gabion Box Supplier.