Retaining wall ideas and advice - Not sure what to do

[malford]

Hello.
I have a retaining wall in my back garden which is crumbling away and is becoming unsafe.
All of the brick piers have crumbled and the stonework is all live..

My questions are:

1..Do I just remove it and grade the land to a gradual fall?
2..Do I rebuild the wall with modern materials?

Below is a link to a YouTube video I did this morning

http://youtu.be/BA2bwKJEv88

If I am to demolish the wall can I dig a massive hole and bury it and then use the excavated soil to help grade the land?

Or do I just get in an 8 yard skip and remove offsite and then buy in some topsoil?

Last question... Would it be worth advertising the stone in the local free ads, free to collect etc..

Thanks for any advice and tips, all the best Malcolm

[seanandruby]

You can't be serious about burying such good stone? I would definetly re-use it somehow. You wouldn' believe the amount of soil you would end up with if you buried it. Wish i had a place for it, someone would bite your hand off for it.

[lutonlagerlout]

its not the worst malcolm
I quite like old walls when they are like that,looks very rustic

can you not plant something that will bind it together?

rebuilding in new stuff will cost a pretty penny to do right

LLL

[malford]

Thanks for the replies..

I started pulling down the wall this morning and it was very easy as nearly all the piers just fell over when pushed.. Some of the mortar appeared to be just sand and fell apart..
Pushing the wheelbarrow up the slope was very hard work and making me feel light headed lol.

I'm cleaning up the stone and stacking it up in case someone wants it all..

I'm tempted to hire in a digger and try and grade part of the land.. Will post up some pictures later of my progress..

[malford]

Ok.. i uploaded a video following today's work on the garden..

http://youtu.be/4ApMbZxle1k

Photobucket gallery below:

Garden Wall