022Seat Wall and Retaining Wall

posted by Jeff on August 25th, 2007

????????On the north end of Appleton we recently completed a retaining wall and seat wall construction using Belgard’s Highland Stone. The steps were constructed using the “pedestal method”, meaning an area of block the full lateral spread of the steps was laid below the first step (on top of a 6″+ layer of crushed limestone), and each subsequent step was stacked atop that first layer. That means the very top step you see in this picture is actually sitting on top of eight layers of retaining wall block.

This doesn’t affect the cost of the project, but it does make it far more durable and stable than steps made using the “step method”, where each step is only sitting atop a single course of block and some compacted, crushed stone.

Highland Stone also comes in freestanding wall units, which have been split on both sides, making them ideal for seat walls. In the project pictured you can see an 18″ seatwall providing more privacy for people on the patio.

Finally, we constructed two columns on either side of the steps to add some grandeur to the patio entry. Line voltage outdoor lighting fixtures were converted to low voltage and mounted to those columns. To keep the look clean outdoors, we mounted the low-voltage transformer in the basement of the home next to the electrical service panel. A photo cell controls the switching on and off of the lights.