Breezeblocks for 500mm high retaining wall

[Jim54]

Hello,
I need to get some blocks to build a 500mm high retaining wall in a garden. I plan to lay them flat (on the largest area side) but which would you recommend? The blocks we've got elsewhere in the garden are about 100mmx200mm*400mm. A building merchants were talking to me about heavy (about 18kg) blocks and lighter blocks, both solid I think.

Any ideas, recommendations gladly received,

 

[r896neo]

You want 7N dense concrete blocks.

N is for newton. This is probably what they meant by heavy blocks

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Yes as mentioned 7N block is about 18kg. Rule of thumb for retaining walls is the width is about 1/3 height so a 215 wide wall will be fine. Pop a good found in too.

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

This thread may be of use //www.diynot.com/diy/threads/garden-retaining-wall-waterproofing.278828/#post-2021233

 

[Jim54]

Thanks for all your help, much appreciated.

Ah, most of the walls are already built by someone else. They've got seep holes in the main, but I doubt very strongly anything was done about waterproofing. Also the soil behind the critical bits is rock hard clay so digging behind it isn't going to be easy and that will really hold the water too.

What are my other options, I suppose a lot of the weather resistant type of paint will come off like render. Is there a type of lime render I could use, as I've heard that it is porous to a degree.

Thanks,