How do I figure out how many retaining wall blocks I need?

Written by: Nate VanBeek

Very Nice, How Much

Are you thinking about building your next outdoor living space project with Allan Block products? Do you have an idea what you want to build, but you don’t know how much material to buy? Allan Block has some great software applications to help you take your project to that next step.

AB Estimating Tool

Estimate all your Allan Block projects in one place with the AB Estimating Tool. This simple material estimator for retaining walls, patio walls, and concrete fences allows you to quickly and efficiently estimate the materials needs for large and small retaining walls, AB Courtyard patio walls and AB Fence sound and security fences. (Available in English and metric units.)

The AB Estimating Tool is a great resource for quickly generating material quantities that you can take straight to a contractor or hardscapes dealer to get your project started. Are you looking for something that’s a little more visual? Do you want to lay out your project before you get a material estimate together?

AB Retaining Walls Application

With the AB Retaining Walls application you can design and estimate retaining walls up to 6 ft. (1.8 m) and receive a full project portfolio with design plans, elevation drawings, wall section details, and material quantity estimates. (Available in English and metric units.)

The AB Retaining Walls application walks you through the retaining wall design process from start to finish. You can even use the application for design inspiration by looking through Allan Block’s various photo galleries.

What can I use for base under my patio wall foundation?

Written by: Souraya Farhat

When building a patio wall on soil, you are required to build a solid and leveled foundation for your patio project. 

To achieve a solid and leveled foundation, one must use compactible material.  Good and proper compaction will prevent future settlement and therefore maintain a level surface over time. 

It is recommended that you use material that is gravel in varying sizes of angular or smooth aggregates similar to the wall rock used in building retaining walls, road base and paver base material. 

Wall Rock

Road/Paver Base

How is AB Fence effective as a sound barrier?

Written by: Rich Lovdal

The AB Fence product is the perfect product for all your fencing needs such as screening, privacy, security and sound abatement.  AB Fence has been used for short 3ft dividing walls to 34 ft tall sound walls around industry and along miles of interstate roadways and every height in between for every conceivable need.   AB Fence is a fully engineered product with reinforced masonry posts and panels made up of 8 inch tall courses of masonry block.  The structural element of the panel is the 2-course bond beams that are cast solid with horizontal rebar and vertical stirrups.  One of the unique features of the AB Fence panel is the dry-stacked courses in between the structural bond beams.  All courses have a ball and socket configuration which lock each course together. 

When using AB Fence for your sound wall needs you can find all our independent sound testing on our website.  Both reflective and absorptive testing was conducted and both were perfectly aligned to grouted masonry walls as expected.  The interesting thing about the results said the researcher was that they expected that a dry-stack system, without mortared joints, would have performed much worse than a typical mortared masonry wall.  But they were wrong.  The unique configuration of the panel units, with the ball and socket bottom and top and the interlocking joints on each end blocks all sound attempting to travel through the joints. 

AB Fence is the right product for your sound wall needs.  Not only providing the highest levels of sound reduction but all the proven strength of a tried and true fully engineered and tested structural system.

How do you attach a fence rail or gate to an AB Fence?

Written by: Chad Julius

There are many beautification applications where metal panels are attached between the posts:

And even more containment applications where a gate is attached:

Whatever your need is the thing to remember is that the AB Fence is just concrete blocks stacked together.  However, we want to make sure these gates and panels are attached to the posts since they are the structural backbone of the system.  Since they are just concrete blocks the easiest way to attach them is with a typical concrete expansion anchor.  Just keep in mind how heavy the gate or panels are and size the anchor appropriately.   To learn more about attaching gates to AB Fence visit our website