Cedar Cladding

bakerbhoy

I need to build a retaining wall around the garage and house on my new build and i am looking at options to clad the wall ie natural stone , hallmark etc,all expensive .A friend suggested cladding in cedar wood ,wall will be 1.6 m to 1m in height and approx 70 m long.
My question is ,will it need to be treated yearly and will it last, i've heard it discolours in our climate.

Mellor

You don't have to treat it. Cedars have natural oils in the wood that preserve it when used externally (internally too I suppose). But these natural oils don't preserve the colour, so the wood will last but it will change colour. Iy goes a silverly grey, some times this is the intended effect.
If this is not what you want, you will need to treat it to prevent it discolouring. You can get various oils to treat it. It will need to be retreated every few years to maintain its colour, but not yearly.

superman12345

Consider building the retaining walls out of recycled railway sleepers - you won't have to worry about cladding the retaining wall:
(3 details possible:
railway sleepers vertically put into ground,
railway sleepers horizontally on edge between steel UC sections
railway sleepers horzontally on flat drilled and pinned [think of Jenga blocks])

Mellor

Sleepers are probably quite an expensive option, 100m2 of sleepers.
in the words of that girl in he bank ad, "train tracks are ching ching, ys know"

bakerbhoy

Thanks for the replys.
It will be a block on flat wall. I had to dig in a slope and the highest part is
15 feet above ffl of the garage .