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Getting started....
Each filled dirtbag , when laid out
&
solidly tamped down,
measures approximately 16" long, 12" wide, and 3" high.
Rules of thumb for basic construction
(for a simple wall):
Height
Length (course)
So
a 5 foot high, 12 foot long wall = 20 courses (horizontal
rows) of
9 end-to-end bags / 20 x 9 = 180 bags
or an 8 foot high, 36 foot long wall = 32 courses of 27 end-to-end bags / 32 x 27 = 864 bags *** An alternate way to estimate how many bags you'll need is to consult our computation chart *** These figures are guidelines. If your wall is 35 feet long, you'd simply dump out one or more bags and use partials. Notes on stability... Wall Height: Above 2 feet high, we suggest using barbed wire to lock the bags together; above 3 feet high, you should consider it mandatory. An alternative we've heard about (one we haven't tried!) is driving rebar with a sledge hammer vertically through the bags into the ground.
Wall Length:
Despite whatever care you give to levelling your foundation,
and despite the stable 12" width
of our dirtbags, we urge the addition of a buttress every 10-12 feet or so for free-standing walls. Rule of thumb is 2:1; 1 foot thickness of butress for every 2 feet of wall height. So a 6-foot high wall should have a 3-foot thick buttress every 10-12 feet. (The hypothetical 36-foot long, 8-foot high wall above should have 2 to 3 buttresses, each 4 feet thick, adding an extra 96 bags per buttress to the 736 bags estimated.) Be safe. Be stable. home
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