When buying a home, its hard to see past any flaws a property may have. But when Kathy found her new home in Sautee Nacoochee, she found a diamond in the rough. With two wrap around porches over looking a stream, it was every mountain lovers dream. Or it would be with some work.
As any one who lives in the mountains knows, the rarest thing in them there hills isn’t gold, but flat ground. And the land around her new house was so steep, it was an ankle hazard to just walk into the back yard. Kathy knew something needed to be done if she was going to be able to enjoy the outdoors with her dog.
To expand her back yard, we installed a flagstone retaining wall complete with stone benches. Besides helping create level surfaces, a retaining wall can also help control erosion. When installed correctly, a retaining wall holds the soil in place and allows water to drain around it. The wall should also be aesthetically pleasing to the land and to the client.
And for Kathy, only a ‘one of a kind’ wall would do.
The first step to build a retaining wall is to dig a trench, by building the foundation of the wall below ground we ensure a more stable structure. Once the trench is level and compacted, gravel or concrete is added as the base. When finished, this wall will be almost seven feet tall and twelve inches thick (which is thicker than most houses!). Because of the size of the wall and how much weight will be behind it, we used concrete for the foundation.
To mount the stone seats and accent boulders, our stone masons had to build the concrete blocks around the large stones. Once the concrete blocks were laid, the real fun began. The masons shaped each flagstone by hand and mortared them onto the wall like a puzzle. The end result is a masterpiece, unlike anything Art of Stone has ever done before. And now, Kathy and her dog have plenty of space to enjoy the peace of North Georgia.
