This home in Toronto’s High Park district originally had an informal tiered rockery-style retaining wall. The homeowners wanted a more formal look to create a tiered planter-style wall. The original stairs were solid concrete, and had cracked and were unsafe.
The replacement wall was made of dry-stacked 8 inch high Eramosa natural stone from the Owen Sound area of Southern Ontario. The wall was laid on a base of ¾ inch gravel, and back filled using ¾ inch clear gravel. Non-woven filter fabric was used to separate the sandy soil from the clean gravel. Flexible 4 inch socked weeping tile was used behind the wall for drainage. Geo-grid mesh was used as tie-back material every 24 inches in height for structural support.The two sets of stairs were both made of rough finished (bush-hammered) Eramosa treads, individually set on a concrete base. Top coping of entire wall was natural Eramosa stone for visual appeal.