Upgrade your backyard with gabion and render walls

You can add beautiful stone and render-look walls to your patio without being a skilled mason. Gabion baskets provide the structural support for stacking any type of stone. These steel baskets can be used as retaining walls, landscaping structure or decorative elements. James Hardie Fine Texture panels over simple framing make quick work of adding the look of render.

Tools Required

Angle grinder

Circular saw

Drill/driver

Level

Pick-axe

Putty knife

Rake

Shovel

Straightedge

Tamper

Tin snips

ZIP tape roller

Materials Required

2x4s

Gabion baskets

Hardie panels

Rocks

Screws

ZIP Sheathing

ZIP tape

See more features of this entire project here. 

Plot Gabion locations

This step is important if you’re setting several baskets in a line. You’ll need stakes and masonry string to keep everything straight. We used single gabion baskets in this installation, so alignment wasn’t an issue.

Check out more gabion wall inspiration and ideas.

Level the area where your baskets will sit to keep them from leaning. If you’re placing the baskets on soft soil or clay, dig down about 300mm and add a gravel base, or footing, to prevent sinking. Our site was firm so it only needed levelling and tamping.

Your gabion baskets may come partially assembled with the sides connected to the basket bottoms. You fold up the sides and secure them with special wire or easy-to-use spiral binders. Close the top to ensure the basket is level, but don’t secure the top in place yet.

With your basket level and in place, add the centre stretcher to keep the sides from bulging.

There’s more to filling a basket than just dumping in rocks. Be sure to “face” the basket, placing the best-looking stones where they can be seen and filling in the centre with smaller and/or less attractive stones. As you build up the faces, let the interior fill stones support the face stones.

Learn how to build a dry stone wall.

When you’ve filled the basket level with stones, set the top in place and fasten it with wire or the spiral binders. Crimp these tight at the corners and file or grind off sharp edges.

Build the framing

Assemble the wall framing to your specifications, using standard stud-wall construction to form rigid boxes. These are exterior installations; go with treated dimensional lumber or steel studs for the framing.

Here are 12 framing mistakes to avoid at all costs.

You’ll need sheathing that will stand up to the elements; we used ZIP System sheathing panels. Because the bottom edges of this sheathing will contact the ground, the panels could wick moisture and swell. To prevent that, after you cut the parts to size, wrap the bottom edges of each panel with ZIP tape or another adhesive-backed moisture barrier.

Fasten the sheathing with construction screws. Then tape all the seams — including corners — with ZIP tape. Be careful not to sink fasteners more than halfway through the thickness of the sheathing.

With your box frames built and sheathed, cut your Hardie panels to fit. Attach the panel parts using approved fasteners, such as ring-shank nails. Fill any nail holes with an exterior putty.

The manufacturer stipulates the edges of Hardie panels need to be 150mm above grade or 25mm above hardscape. Because this isn’t a dwelling, we were comfortable voiding the product warranty to get the look we wanted.