Retaining wall for patio - Help?

[Barney Ruble]

I need to put up a small retaining wall to hold in rubble and then put patio slabs on top. It's around 50 meters square and the wall will be roughly 280mm high. I'm looking at using bradstone walling blocks. Will these be ok to use or do I need to use concrete blocks to make the wall and use the bradstone blocks to hide the concrete blocks? Do I need to tie this in to the house wall with a plate? Also, how far below the surface do I need to go for the foundations?

There is also a man-whole cover within the patio area, I was planning on raising this with bricks, is this ok, or is there a better way? As it will have to meet with the slope of the patio
Thanks

[lutonlagerlout]

all on the main site
LLL

[Barney Ruble]

Hi, I've looked through the relavent sections on the site (which is brilliant by the way). Can't find anything on using the bradstone walling blocks for a retaining wall or concrete blocks. Would really appreciate some guidance/advice?

[lutonlagerlout]

you dont want your retaining wall to touch the house as this could lead to damp issues, i imagine the bradstone blocks with some concrete behind them would be fine,i have built planters 600mm high in these blocks,
and ideally a recessed manhole cover would look best on the patio flush or slightly lower than the paving level
regards LLL

[Tony McC]

I can't give detailed advice for each and every product on the market. If I was to build a page showing how to build using the Bradstone blocks, then Marshalls, Tobermore, and all the others could complain and demand a similar page for their products. I believe it's the responsibility of the individual manufacturers to provide information on their products.

The exception to this is when a company covers the costs of developing a dedicated page on pavingexpert.com for their product(s). In such cases, the fact that the company has sponsored the page development is always made clear - examples such as Aco Linear Drains and Romex jointing show this to best effect.

If Bradstone (or anyone else) want a page showing how to build walls using their blocks, then they can have one, if they pay for it! Otherwise, they should publish the info on their own website.