I decided to document this project a year after installing the original wall. The wall came to fruition as a result of trying to stop the erosion of my lake shore. Our cove is usually protected from the prevailing winds but every so often the wind is blowing in the correct direction we will get some massive wave action. Since we bought the place the area that I’ll illustrate as back fill, it actually land we lost to the lake.
First Attempt 2019
2019 marked iteration one. I thought that I could simply layout some paver stones along the erosion line thinking that the blocks themselves would be sufficient to stop the erosion. I did not dig or attempt to line up the stones in a level fashion. The resulting “wall” looked decent but this method did not work. The wave action ended up causing the stones to move and eventually fell apart.
Second Attempt 2022
I am trying to avoid installing a sea wall. I am willing to trade a bit of seasonal repair for the DIY solution. My second iteration involved digging trenches and leveling the blocks along with backfill to fill in the area lost to erosion. This iteration probably took me an entire weekend given the amount of digging involved. I also added height to the wall but doubled the blocks I needed. Notice how much back fill was need to fill in the erosion.
This wall didn’t work either. Partly it didn’t work because I didn’t put enough back fill dirt behind the bricks and we had an extensive flooding with the lake level being higher than my wall. The wave action and water destroyed the wall.
Third Attempt 2024
The previous wall worked out better than the original attempt but I still needed to repair the wall because the top blocks were mostly pushed around by the wave action. In a few cases the wave action caused the blocks to settle slightly tipped forward. This iteration I think will work better because I installed support under the blocks that tipped forward and I used more dirt behind the top blocks. I’d like to get some sod to put on top of the dirt if I can find some this late in the season. I think the sod will help hold everything together.
Conclusion
First, I am thankful that I do not have open water property. I can’t tell you how many home owners in my neighborhood that have had to repair their sea wall. It’s not cheep! The most expensive repair was north of $80k. Second, wave action is powerful. We really need to be harvesting the natural wave action in our large bodies of water. We could be generating electricity. Third, while I hope this wall holds together better, I am will to maintain it each season rather than have erosion. A neighbor nearby has erosion that is occurring underneath the roots of his tree and turf. The ground underneath is gone creating a large cavity that will eventually fall into the lake. I’ll post any additional updates on this page for future seasons.