I was wondering if anyone had an opinion on using Gabions (wire baskets filled with rocks) as retaining walls in a residential project. My architect thought it might be an interesting and cost effective idea. I think it might look cool too. We have several large retaining walls (8-10' high by 20 - 30 feet long).

One concern I have is whether stuff will start growing all over them and be hard to clean off.

You're not going to get much stuff growing from them, as there is no soil involved. They would obviously make great trellises for some chosen landscape plants.

I can't imagine that they'd be all that cost effective though, in that a 10' tall gabion wall will need to be around 3 feet deep in order to reach that height. That is a LOT of stone, and a lot of gabion baskets. You might be able to do a cast in place concrete retaining wall for a very similar cost, although you can't compete with the aesthetics of the gabion wall.

Mark

Thanks Mark. I will be price both options out over the next few weeks.

Josh

I read this thread a few days ago and thought there was a picture attached.  I loved the look and talked with my builder about adding these in place of some retaining walls but I need to show some pictures and the ones I am finding on the web are not as good as the one that was posted! 

If anyone has pictures or more information about this with smooth rocks, it would be greatly apprecaited. 

Jennifer

Don't know if this is too late, but, I like the look of gabbions a lot.  We are doing a hideously long retaining wall and the least expensive option for us was a rockery (big boulders) - which has a really good aesthetic to my eyes.  However, depending on the soils you are trying to retain, I am not sure if rockery will work at a 10' height.  It depends on your soils. 

Good Luck!