You might not be familiar with the word “gabion,” but you’ve almost certainly seen what they can do for your landscaping project or outdoor living space. A gabion is a type of wired basket filled with various rocks or soil that helps prevent erosion, retain a slope, or provide a landscape element. They are commonly used in streambanks and areas with steep slopes. In fact, gabions have been used for centuries for all sorts of purposes, ranging from landscaping, road building, to even military uses.
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Whether you need to use them as a barricade or a way to grow a few vegetables, gabions can be a great help to your landscaping or gardening needs. Here's what you need to know about gabions.
These days, most people associate gabions with a simple metal crate that has rocks in it (gabion baskets). However, there are various types of gabions that are designed for different uses.
Here is a list of the types of gabions:
What type of gabion you’ll need depends on the problems that could potentially occur. In addition, your location will also determine the type of gabion you may need.
Gabions can be used for many things, but some are more common than others. The original purpose of gabions was to retain earth. But that’s not always the case. Gabions can be used to block out sounds and noises. They can be used to direct the flow of water, reduce water velocity, and prevent erosion. However, gabions can be used for so much more.
Gabions are commonly used in gardens as well. In fact, people can grow various types of plants and vegetation within one by turning them into a planter or utilizing them as walls to create a raised garden bed.
In other cases, people simply use gabions as a way to add a certain look to their homes. They have many residential uses that can be tailored to suit individual needs from landscape elements to architectural veneers and elements.
Aside from erosion prevention and aesthetic uses, gabions do provide some pretty handy benefits. For starters, gabions are inexpensive and easy to use, so they are useful for those who need to accomplish a lot of landscaping or protection from soil erosion on a budget and can perform much of the work themselves as a novice.
Another great benefit of gabions is that they are better for the environment because they have a smaller carbon footprint. In fact, using gabions reduces the amount of carbon dioxide produced by 80 percent compared to the use of regular concrete walls and you can also utilize recycled or onsite fill to further reduce your impact.
Last but not least, gabions can be used in any kind of environment, whether it’s rural or urban. Even suburban areas can reap the benefits of gabions. In other words, gabions aren’t limited to just one type of environment. They can easily be used in residential and commercial settings. Gabion usage isn't limited to only large rock formations or in areas that aren't occupied.
Gabions may not always be a main topic of conversation, but they have been a useful landscaping and engineering component for many years and are growing in popularity. We hope this guide has helped you discover some ways you can put gabions to work for you!
If this is the first time you are coming across the term Architectural Gabion, let us define it for you! Architectural Gabions are essentially wall-like structures created by filling stones in mesh metal boxes. The cages are designed using galvanized and powder coated steel wires to withstand various conditions, both weather-related as well as environmental. Each box can be joined with other boxes just like lego blocks, bound by a steel spiral to create a unit. Hence, by design, gabion walls can be as small or extensive as you want them to be.
Now that we are clear regarding what architectural gabions are, let us understand what they bring to the table. Conventionally, gabions were used to create retaining walls in a bid to stabilise slopes, prevent soil erosion and avert hazardous phenomena like landslides. However, the ever-evolving field of architecture discovered that gabions, when designed more aesthetically, can also be used for creating fences, constructing building sidings and landscaping!
If you are wondering as to why you should make use of architectural gabions in your next project, we can help you with not 1 or 2, but 5 compelling reasons to do so. These include –
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Now, this is something that will not only help you save a fair amount of time and effort, but will also help bring down the cost of construction. Instead of the conventional concrete foundation, Gabion Walls can easily be simply built to last by ensuring that the size of the base and the depth of the toe are sufficient to hold the height and spread of the wall.
The Gabion wall requires no concrete foundation, the wall toe restricts the gabion wall from displacing, and the depth of the toe needs to increase as the wall increases in height and width. When building on softer soils, both the size of the base and the depth of the toe needs to be increased to spread the load over a wider area.
As mentioned earlier, gabion walls are made by filling galvanised and powder coated steel boxes with stones. To create a structure of choice, these cages can be conveniently stacked one above the other making these walls scalable to an exceptional degree. To make sure the structure is resistant to external forces, the cages are bound to one another using steel spirals.
Did you know? A whopping 40% of the world’s raw material is used by the construction industry. An even more harrowing fact is that the construction sector is responsible for 60% of the world’s greenhouse emissions. Fortunately, gabion features help bring down CO2 emissions to a large extent and are much more environmentally friendly🌳 than traditional concrete walls.
Yet another way in which gabion walls excel on the environmental front is that they can be used to grow vegetation, without taking up any extra space or even effort!
Gabions are more or less like lego blocks, and therefore when it comes to creating some amazing structures Gabions prove to be more than just helpful. Right from creating walls to fence posts, from tables to benches, from staircase railings to garden strip boundaries, Gabions can be used to create a wide array of outdoor features. Hence, if you are looking forward to giving a rustic stone theme to your project Gabions can be your best bet. And need we say, they will make sure that your home/office exterior looks absolutely unique!
Gabion walls prove to be an eye-catching element in construction, especially when the interstitial spaces between the rock fill are used to breed life in the form of plants. Not only are these walls a far cry from the monotony of concrete walls, but they also elucidate the innovativeness and ingenuity of the architect and the property owner. All of this combined leaves an indelible mark on the onlooker, making these walls worth every penny spent over them!
We hope that you are now convinced of the unmatched benefits that gabion walls entail, and just how assertive can these be when it comes to flaunting your creative thinking! If you too want to make the most of this new-age construction feature, then don’t forget to check out A-1 Fence Products for one of the most dependable and cost-effective architectural gabion solutions in the market!
Short Answer – Yes, gabions can often prove to be cost-efficient.
Long Answer – Gabions used in large scale civil projects are rather inexpensive owing to the woven diamond wire. On the other hand, gabions used for architectural and design applications can prove to be somewhat costly due to the use of the 4mm welded panels used to create weld mesh type cages for a better aesthetic and increased durability.
More often than not, basalt rocks are preferred to fill gabions. Thanks to their innate hardness and durability, these rocks can easily withstand the weight load that is inherent to gabion structures. That said smaller gabion structures can be filled with any stones of choice, based on their colour, texture, availability and pricing!
Our experts at A-1 Fence Products suggest filling gabion cages with rocks ranging in size from 75 mm to 150 mm. This ensures enhanced resistance and durability of the gabion walls.
The lifespan of a gabion wall largely depends on the type of basket construction. Woven baskets made using 2.7mm wire usually do not last as long as the welded baskets manufactured using 4mm wire.
The company is the world’s best Custom Gabion supplier. We are your one-stop shop for all needs. Our staff are highly-specialized and will help you find the product you need.