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Message: [QUOTE="brokensword, post: 459044, member: 3486"] the reason you pour a footing/foundation is to give you a level and solid base upon which to put the wall. In this case, you have a solid base already with the ground. Unless you think building such a wall is going to lean/topple, you're overthinking this. If you want to make sure there's no topple effect, you can tie your stone in perpendicular, above the water line and below your final stack, sort of like they do with 6x6s and wood retaining walls. I just don't see the need, personally; you can always let your wall slightly lean back toward the liner+dirt backing as you build up. If you build with solids below and use your stack up above, from just below the water level to your final height, you should be good. And like any good masonary wall, you lay these blocks in an overlap method like facia on a house, you don't stack straight up (I'm not going to assume you're versed in masonary techniques; no offense intended if you are). And I'd use the solid slabs/blocks, not the typical 8" two core blocks. If you want better stability, use 12" blocks. I used 8x16x4 slabs but I only had to have one base course. You may have more, depending on your design. I'd NOT stack from your pond bottom, I'd dig a shelf, 12" wide, and 6" below your water line. That's what I did. And in doing so, you minimize the number of blocks and also your facia stack. How high above the water surface are you intending again? How far below? And you can do the triple layer of extra liner under this block/slab base just as I described above. The main concern I have is that anything round, won't put any cutting pressure on the liner--angular gravel will. (even then, I'd not put anything other than flat on my pond surface). You're thinking that packing/compression is important but you're already starting with a compressed surface in the base ground of your pond. Here, you're only needing support for your facia rock. If you really want to make it overly strong structurally, do the blocks with holes, take some rerod, bend it into a U shape that spans 2 block openings, and send it down with concrete. Do this for all the holes and your wall will be unified. I'd then do the tie-back with another rerod at the top of your wall every 4 ft. You'd then secure this tie in to something staked into the ground. But, this would be overkill imo. I didn't feel the need to do that, but again, my rock wall is only about 16" high. I don't see the need for your wall stack to be anything more unless you have some artsy vision to your design and want it higher. I don't remember you saying anything like that, I think you're aiming for something like I did. [/QUOTE]

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