See our retaining wall cost guide to find the average price of a retaining wall.

If the wall is too high, you may need to embed it deeper in the ground to reach the desired height this requires a little more digging but is otherwise ok. Accounting for this from the start will ensure that the wall does not end up too short. We suggest ordering an extra 10% of materials to accommodate this, but the project’s complexity might require more or less.ĭon’t forget to account for embedding the first course of blocks below grade when measuring the desired wall height. When ordering supplies, it’s a good idea to plan for additional retaining wall materials, including blocks and cap blocks to account for waste or bad material. Round up to the nearest full pattern or pallet being sold. If you are using inches, divide this number by 144 to get the total square feet. If you are using feet, the resulting number will be your total square feet for the wall. Multiply these two measurements together. This should be the total height of the wall, including any block material that will be used below grade. For this, you will need the width and height of the wall in feet or inches. Therefore, you will need to get the total square footage of the wall you intend to build. This is particularly true if you are purchasing a block material that is arranged in a pattern or that may have varying colors of blocks. Others may be sold by the pallet, with a set number of square feet per pallet. Some blocks are sold by the square foot rather than by the block. Otherwise, you will need to calculate those separately. If the top row will be a cap block, then the number of cap blocks needed is equal to the number of columns found above, as long as the cap blocks have the same width as the field blocks. Total blocks = rows × columns Calculate Cap Blocks To find the total number of blocks needed for the wall, multiply the number of columns by the number of rows don’t forget to subtract a row if using cap blocks.

Wall rows = wall height / block height Step Three: Calculate the Retaining Wall Blocks Needed Divide the wall’s height in inches by the block height and round up this is the number of rows.įor example, if your wall is 3 feet high and 30 feet long using blocks that are 6 inches high and 10 inches wide, then you will have 6 rows and 36 columns. Be sure to account for this when measuring the wall height.ĭivide the wall’s width in inches by the block width and round up this is the number of columns. Most experts suggest embedding the first course of blocks below grade about 10% of the wall height to support it correctly.įor example, if the desired wall height is 6 feet, you should embed it below grade by 7-8 inches. Start by measuring the wall’s width and height. To estimate the total number of retaining wall blocks, you’ll first need to calculate the number of rows and columns needed for the wall. How Many Retaining Wall Blocks Do You Need If you are using concrete blocks without mortar, this calculator can be used to get you the results you need. If you’re building a mortared concrete block wall, then try our concrete block calculator. Note: Estimating material for concrete block walls that are mortared is a bit different from a dry stack block wall. Keep reading to learn the formulas to calculate retaining wall materials yourself. If the blocks are all one size, you can simply enter their dimensions as is. So, if the blocks have widths of 6 inches, 8 inches, and 4 inches, you will enter the block width of 18 inches into the calculator.īecause the blocks are grouped, your results will give you the number of “grouped” blocks to purchase. The depth and height of the blocks should be the same it’s only the width that typically differs.

If this is the case for the wall you are estimating, you will need to add the width of the blocks together. Meaning that the walls may be made of blocks of three sizes designed to be used together in one pattern. Keep in mind that retaining wall blocks can be purchased in grouped patterns. How to Estimate Block Walls With Patterns

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