Gabions anybody?

[Danger Mouse]

I have been thinking about making some gabions (mesh wire with rocks in it) as features in a new garden or even as part of my entrance onto our block. We have a lot of rocks and whilst they would require hand laying (since they are many and varied size) I think they would look good.

I would not go too big (making sure they were safe and not needing any council approval etc. Also thought of making some and attaching some timber on top for garden seats.

Keen to hear if anyone has made their own or used some in their garden?

Ian

[Fuzzie]

I have been looking at gabions recently thinking they might help stabilize a slope on my block, but they are not suitable for the problem we have, but I did find these videos (http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=MW2z4U-SRKs)which are helpful.

[Danger Mouse]

Thanks Fuzzie - I had seen thise.

I found a site that sells the wire cages in a kit form in Australia but I was thinking I would just buy mesh and do it myself for less.

I saw once on a TV show (not sure if it was better Homes or something similar) and they made one with mesh where they just knicked the mesh with a thin cutting wheel on an angle grinder and bent it up into shape with wore on the lid. Seemed easy but I thought I would probably just get panels and wire all joints up using thick fencing wire.

[Paul B]

Years ago I worked for a company installing gabions. Hard bloody work. They're great for retaining walls. We made one for the railways that was about 40m wide x 20m high. huge, looked like a dam.We also installed some "mattress" gabions (they look like a bloody great mattress filled with rock) along a river bank up in QLD, for riverbank stabilisation. And a bunch of other jobs all over the country.

Only the exposed face is laid carefully by hand, so it looks pretty. The rest is just back filled with an excavator, and the lid wired closed.

These things have been used since the 1800's (and are still standing), the idea is that by the time the wire has rusted away, a whole lot of vegetation will have established a foot hold, and the root systems will pretty much take over the job of holding it all together (the whole process takes years and years). But it's gonna depend on the wire you choose. Plastic coated heavy gauge mesh, or gal heavy gauge mesh is going to last the distance, but cheap stuff is going to cause problems when it all rusts away in a few years and the whole thing collapses.

It's a matter of picking the right materials for the job (as usual). Making one as a garden feature sounds like a lot of work for no great return, or maybe I'm just sick of the things.

[Andy Mac]

Thanks Fuzzie - I had seen thise.

I found a site that sells the wire cages in a kit form in Australia but I was thinking I would just buy mesh and do it myself for less.

I saw once on a TV show (not sure if it was better Homes or something similar) and they made one with mesh where they just knicked the mesh with a thin cutting wheel on an angle grinder and bent it up into shape with wore on the lid. Seemed easy but I thought I would probably just get panels and wire all joints up using thick fencing wire.

I claim no experience making gabions, but have worked with weld mesh a fair bit, and I wouldn't be reducing the thickness and strength of the material like that. Certainly not without welding it after the bend is complete. Sounds to me like introducing a weak point on every corner with all that mass inside! They do look good though!

[jackcrown]

Do not buy the kits unless you are a hopeless DIY guy and/or you have no time to make these yourself! They are easy to make once you have the raw material (I use Custom Wire Cloth - Belleville Wire Cloth Co - Cedar Grove, NJ (http://www.bwire.com/) ).

They will look great, and you will have the satisfaction of knowing that you made them on your own. I am in agreement with Andy here, not a great idea to bend without welding it and then filling it with a ton of weight. Welding mesh can get tricky, but you should be able to figure it out for yourself once you practice a bit.

These truly look amazing when finished and you will be very satisfied with the style that it will bring to your garden or yard.

[Ben Dono]

I will be doing two walls in the next 6 months and will be using gabions..I think they look great. I looked into all sorts of walls and these are the cheapest and should see me out. The is a mob in Coffs Harbour that sells the cages and info. He is really helpful. Mostly they sell to the rta but he sells all the gear in smaller lots.
There are lots of sizes of cages but the most common two are the 1m by 1m by 2m. And the landscape size cage is .5m by .5m by 1m.

Hey Paul, what is it that makes them so hard to work with? Everyone says that it's bloody hard work. I thought it was a simple gravel footing, wire up the cages and fill with rocks, line the back with geo cloth and then your done... I must be missing something. I was just going to use my loader on the tractor to fill them. Surely that's the toughest part.
I must be missing the point somewhere.
I'm guilty of doing that sometimes!

[Paul B]

I wouldn't want to do it without an excavator. Filling them with rock by hand would be hard work, as would back-filling by hand. But even with an excavator you still have to move a lot of rock by hand in order to fit the individual rocks together. And that is the secret to making them look good, the more time you take 'facing' your rock, the better they'll look. It was a well paying job because it was such hard work, a lot of blokes didn't last very long.

Once your gabion gains some height they're a lot easier to work on. It's when they are at ground level that it's pretty back breaking.

[gpigeon]

Ian,
I have both made my own gabions and used bought ones.

The home made ones were from ordinary heavy duty wire netting and turned out more like a sausage than a basket! However, they were built in a gully in order to retain top soil so the shape did not matter and are doing the job. When the soil builds up to the top of the "sausage" I will add another level.

The bought ones came as a lay flat pack and when opened out were 2m x .5m x .5m. made from about 2mm dia galv mesh, maybe 100 sq openings. PVC coated also available. They cost me about $30 ea. They are easy to use and look quite good, although collecting the rock from the paddock is a chore. I think the professionals choose flat face rocks for the visible faces and then just mass fill the innards. "Gabion' rock is available from some landscape suppliers.

I cannot see why a gabion with a timber seat would not work well.

Rgds.
Bill.