Step 10b - best gauge and material to use for your gabion baskets
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 3 เม.ย. 2022
- We talk about the best gauge of wire and material used for our gabion baskets. We also discuss how to stabilize the basket front and back in order to keep the rocks from pushing - or bowing - the baskets. We doubled the use of "stiffening rods" (yes that is what they are called).
I own and operate a gabion basket manufacture company in Atlantic Canada and I use either 9 gage (when I can get it) or 6 gage. I use galvanized. The stiffing rods are kind of a waste, you can get 14 or 18 gage rolls for about 20 bucks. Just run a length from front to back every couple feet of height and length to keep the gabion square.
@darrylsmith9027 Excellent comment. We could not get 9 gauge, that is why we ended up tap welding (not as ideal as 9 gauge for sure). Thanks for commenting. J&K
well explained, thank you!
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Progress is looking good. How think are the walls? And where did you order your cages from? Thanks for sharing.
Thank you for your comments. The cages are 1 foot wide. (The higher the wall, the more thickness you will need). There are a number of suppliers out there but availability is the issue. Many of our kits were purchased before the supply shortages today. However, we did run into some issues with supply and canceled shipments for kits ordered in 2021, so we purchased from various suppliers. If you are in the US, there is more availability from Earth-Wall Products out of Smyrna, Georgia. This supplier provides twisted wire gabion baskets which I believe offer more flexibility with support over the tap wire welded cage kits we ordered. (Wish we had gone with twisted wire to save on all the additional tap welding we did ourselves to achieve more structural support). Another benefit to Earth-Wall Products is that they have a structural engineer on staff that can provide guidance for your design. Another tip for resources in your area is to talk to large landscapers or fencers. Gabion baskets are traditionally used in landscaping and fencing. These businesses should be able to give you some leads.
Happy building
J&K
Had you not been installing these gabions in Montana winter do you think it would've been easier to install and fill 2½ ft. tall sections and build up incrementally rather than fill 5 ft deep?
Hello and thank you for that comment. We did discuss this. The tallest wall on the south side is built in two sections each 3.5 feet. This was more time consuming because it is like building two separate walls. The 5 feet sections built as one wall (north, south, east) went faster. The reason this is taking so long is that it is two people doing all the work while running a separate business at the same time. And this winter (2022-2023) has been extremely snowy, windy and cold. More to come.
J&K
I plan to use rip rap for my wall. Is it possible to use 11 gauge steel with rip rap?
Edit: do individual baskets hold up better than just one continuous wall? I would like to conserve my steel and just build one single basket which is essentially the entire wall. 8x8 ideally, but if 8x4 cuts out all the noise from the obnoxious gas station across the street then I'll do that.
Hello. Sorry for the late reply. 11 gauge is okay, but 9 is better. The issues with one big basket (as opposed to individual smaller baskets stitched together) is that you may have a wave in your length and the soundness of the structure may be compromised. The material you are filling the basket with will also matter. The smaller baskets form a box, so the side panels give more support. If you are building an 8x8 wall, I would suggest four 2'x8' cages that are stitched together. Too, you may have difficulty finding a cage that is 8 feet tall. This would mean that you end up with eight baskets in all stacked on top of each other. In other words: double stacked four 2'x5' cages staggered with 2'x3 cages. See the video on when we built the tall 7 feet wall on the south end of the walipini. Happy planning. J&K
What company did you order the panels and rods with the kit.
Thank you for your comment.
I bought the kits from several sources. I ordered some kits in 2020 and had little sourcing issues. Availability became an issue in 2021 and some orders were backorder then canceled. Others came incomplete. You may want to buy domestically. Check with large landscapers in your area for sourcing since gabion baskets are typically used in garden walls. We bought tap-welded baskets and I wish we would have gone with twisted wire. This would have saved time in reinforcing. I talk about this in one of my videos so that is something you may want to consider if your walls are tall.
Cheers
J&K
Can you out a link to the supplier of the kits?
Thank you for your comment. There are a number of suppliers out there but availability is the issue. Many of our kits were purchased before the supply shortages today. However, we did run into some issues with supply and canceled shipments for kits ordered in 2021, so we purchased from various suppliers. If you are in the US, there is more availability from Earth-Wall Products out of Smyrna, Georgia. This supplier provides twisted wire gabion baskets which I believe offer more flexibility with support over the tap wire welded cage kits we ordered. (Wish we had gone with twisted wire to save on all the additional tap welding we did ourselves to achieve more structural support). Another benefit to Earth-Wall Products is that they have a structural engineer on staff that can provide guidance for your design. Another tip for resources in your area is to talk to large landscapers or fencers. Gabion baskets are traditionally used in landscaping and fencing. These businesses should be able to give you some leads. If you buy from big box stores or big internet suppliers (ie. Amazon, Wayfair) , just make sure you are getting rust resistant, galvanized metal that is at least 9 or 11 gauge wire. If you wire cage is made of twisted wire, instead of tap welded, you will pay more.
@montanalivinginthebigskyco8541 thanks I just started talking with gabion1 in CA. I'll look at earth wall too.
😍@@smashdaworld5916
Cage is too narrow for the height. 2:1 is generally acceptable.
Thank you for your comment. Before we started to build, we had an architect with the United States Dept of Agriculture look at our design for structural integrity. With this width, we are securing with an anchor system at the base of the cage and also about 2 feet from top. Filling cages with rocks at 1 foot depth was a lot of work. I hate to think about doubling that as I would be dead from exhaustion 😜
It's probably different for a greenhouse as opposed to a multi-level home
Its not a retaining wall