Quote:
Originally Posted by roKWiz
On the gabbions, I did a job in Newcastle along the sea front for a client years ago. Their neighbour wanted a quote for a similar (granite) stone wall where they decided paying a Stonemason was to expensive and they would use gabbions.
Two years later the cheap steel baskets are breaking open spilling the loose cheaper (sandstone) stones onto their driveway.
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Are they people that talk too much?
Gabions, and associated products, have been used in a huge variety of projects for aeons. They are pretty much the de-facto standard for retaining on large-scale projects.
The first advantage is that they are porous, allowing water and silt to pass through, and slowly trapping soil that will support vegetation.
The rusting metal is part of the design. Especially when it comes to "mattresses", etc. The idea being that over time, as the soil compacts and stabilises, you end up with a very natural wall.
(This is of added benefit in situations where subsequent rehab would require the removal of more permanent solutions.)
However it has become fashionable to use "gabion-type" structures for things such as signs, free-standing walls, and some concept of "nouveau industrial chic" retaining walls. Typically the rocks in these are smaller, more evenly sized, more densely packed, and of a type selected for aesthetics rather than their ability to form a natural wall. Obviously for those, once the wire rusts through, they tend to collapse under their own weight, hence the emergence of stainless models.
Which of course is typical of fashionistas. Something that was in use because it's functional and cheaper than better-looking alternatives, becomes fashionable, and the cheap characteristics become undesirable, leading to models that are more expensive than the original alternatives.