How To Build a Keystone Wall Step by Step!

Learn how to build a sturdy and attractive keystone retaining wall with this instructional video. This do it yourself keystone wall is made from stacked building blocks, and is a great home improvement project. Whether you’re interested in landscaping or need a keystone retaining wall, this video has got you covered! Lots of landscaping problems can be solved by short keystone walls. Retaining walls, raised vegetable beds, seating walls and much more. This video will show you how to build a short (under 3 foot tall) keystone wall. This video was shot in San Diego, California.

Thank you to Unique Landscaping for their assistance in making this video.

For more info on Keystone products and wall ideas check out the webpages below.

Here are some books to give you more ideas on patios.
https://amzn.to/3ixeAhM
https://amzn.to/3DepGjk
https://amzn.to/3lwOmxK

Video by Doug Kalal, Great Gardens Landscape Design
For more information about my San Diego based landscape design services, please contact me at Kalal5@sbcglobal.net

2 Minute Gardener #573

#keystonewall
#retainingwall
#wallideas
#landscapesolutions
#backyardideas
#terracingideas
#gardenwall
#raisedbed

Here is more information to the products seen in this video;
https://www.keystonewalls.com/
https://www.keystonewalls.com/products/structural-retaining-walls/keystone-country-manor-wall
https://www.rcpblock.com/walls.html
https://www.rcpblock.com/walls-countrymanor.html

Hello again. This is Doug the two-minute gardener. We’re going to look at how to build a keystone wall. So, as you’ve seen in my previous video on walls, there’s two basically two different kinds of walls. There’s a CMU block wall and a keystone wall. This video is going to focus on keystone walls. Keystones are walls that are built out of building blocks that put together, stack on top. Sometimes they’re epoxied, sometimes they’re just pins, sometimes they’re gravity stacked, and they can be used to make a wide range of things from retaining walls to vegetable gardens, even seating walls. So, they serve a wide range of purpose. There’s a lot of different styles. There are links in the video description and the comment section on the different kinds of walls available out there. So, we’re going to look at uh basically how these things are built uh from scratch. So, getting started on how to build a keystone wall. And here’s a couple more shots of examples of keystone walls before we get to the actual building of the wall. Um, lots of different fun uses, but let’s get started on how to build it. So, this is the project uh we’re going to look at. So, starting with the before, the homeowner had started to try to build a keystone wall, but he picked the wrong wall for the right for the elevations. And, you know, just to be honest, didn’t quite have the skill set and know how to do it. This was uh before he had seen my video. Um but basically one of the important things with all walls, but especially keystone walls, is you really need to have a good fitting. So for a keystone wall like this one, which is 3 ft uh or lower, then you really need to excavate down. And you can use compacted gravel for a footing. Now, if you start getting bigger than that, then you got to look at doing concrete. But it’s really really important that you have a very solid footing that is perfectly level before you lay it. And when you lay that first course or the base course, it is extremely important that that is perfectly level. It’s very time consuming, but you have to really check each individual block to make sure that it is very level. By the way, this particular wall is being made out of country manner keystone, which actually is rated to go up to six feet. Notice the holes in this one are holes that you can actually use rebar if you wanted to do reinforced rebar wall. Anyway, the nice thing about Keystone is that it does come with this pin system which adds even more stability. And then to really make it stable, the contractor is using this rapid set epoxy. Now, it is important to note that you don’t need to use this epoxy when you’re dealing with short keystone walls. And by the way, not all Keystone walls have this pin system. Some of them, like I mentioned before, are a simple gravity stack type walls. Now, this again is Countryman Keystone, which you can do without rebar as high as 3 feet. If you go above 3 feet up to about six feet, then you definitely want to do rebar because you’re going to be anchoring that rebar in a concrete footing. As you saw in the other wall video where I talk about concrete footings and using that and it’s really important. The nice thing about Country Manor Keystone is it has kind of this rustic style. It does come with a cap system, so it gives you a really nice finished look. And you can always just kind of custom trim the cap with a masonry saw. You see right there. And again, you want to epoxy it once it’s perfectly level. So you double check that it’s all really, really level before you start gluing this thing in because once it’s in, it is really stable and really in. And I always recommend epoxying the cap in because the cap is something that potentially you might step on if you’re going in to work it. So again, here’s a small little project in this front yard. The before where it was just kind of falling down. And now we have a much cleaner, better looking front yard to this. We actually also added some lights for the stairs to make that a little bit safer. But this is a really beautiful front yard rose garden. we happen to get this particular shot when the roses are dormant. But boy, I tell you, come springtime, these roses are going to look absolutely fabulous. So, there you go. That’s how to build a really simple keystone wall um for a front yard or backyard project. Hey, a big shout out to Unique Landscaping for all their help in making this video. They did a beautiful job on this project and there’s more information about them in the comment section as well. Well, that’s all the time we have for today. This is Doug the two-minute gardener saying if you enjoyed this video, make sure to hit that like button and subscribe to get more of my garden videos. Until next time, this is Doug the two-minute gardener saying thanks for watching.