Sandbag Selection Guide > Construction > Sandbags for Retaining Walls

DuraBag Sandbags for retaining walls

What's the best sandbag for retaining walls?

DuraBag™ polyethylene bags are perfect for building strong, attractive, UV and weather resistant, semi-permanent sandbag retaining walls of almost any size, type or conditions.

DuraBag retaining walls are ideal for:

A) holding water back (such as a beachfront bulkhead).
B) stabilizing an earthen slope or berm.
C) landscaping a yard of different elevations.

When filled with sand, DuraBags make an effective, UV resistant waterfront bulkhead. (Sand-fill requires purchase of add-on plastic liners due to the open mesh bag shell fabric.)

When filled with 1/2" gravel, the open, coarse weave of polyethylene mesh fabric of DuraBags is breathable, allowing air and moisture to pass through while holding back a soil berm or slope..

And if you're simply looking to stabilize a slope with plastic sheeting, DuraBags filled with 1/4" chipstone provide great anchor weights.

Specs

Ideal size for easy handling, moving into place and interlocking. They measure 14"x26" and can hold up to 50lbs of fill. Plus, they are easy to fill and seal thanks to the steel ties included.
The high-strength polyethylene mesh fabric is light yet resistant to tearing or cracking. The 380 PSI burst strength means they can even withstand vehicle run over! And, when compared to smoother-finish sandbags, DuraBags are much less likely to cause slipping and falling if someone walks over them.
Designed to last 10,000 hours (5 years) when exposed to harsh weather and intense UV from the sun. Plus they're not biodegradable, meaning they won't break down when exposed to soil bacteria.
DuraBag retaining walls are extremely affordable when compared to concrete, cement block, stone or timber.
Free shipping to US locations.
Made in USA

Forget about using the light-duty sandbags commonly available at local hardware stores. DuraBags are a much stronger, longer-lasting solution.

DuraBags are available in these popular colors:

Green

White

Black

DuraBag contractor-grade gravel sandbags - red

Red

DuraBag contractor-grade gravel sandbags - tan

Tan

Brown

Blue

Yellow

Orange

BEWARE: Not all Poly Bags are created equal!

Any good poly sandbag should be non-biodegradable (won't break down when exposed to soil and water). But UV exposure is a killer. Eventually it will wear down even the very best of poly bags (DuraBags).

We hear it all the time. A customer bought poly sandbags elsewhere that broke down within just a month or two when exposed to the sun.

And even many brands of poly bags that say they are 'UV Resistant,' really are not. Read the details. You'll see that they are designed to last just a year or two under sun exposure.

DuraBags are rated to last a whopping 5-years of UV exposure.

Don't make the mistake of buying inferior sandbags. Buy the bags you can trust... DuraBags.

TIP: Want to bump-up your DuraBag retaining wall from a semi-permanent (5-year) solution into a PERMANENT retaining wall that could last a lifetime.

Here are a couple tricks from people who build earthbag homes with DuraBags:

1. Wrap the sun-exposed face of your DuraBag wall with galvanized chicken wire, poly fishnet, or galvanized or plastic plaster mesh -- starting from under the bottom bag layer to over the top. Fasten with a strong poly or nylon twine or strapping. Then coat the sun-exposed surfaces with cement-based stucco or regular cement plaster. (This mesh wrap is optional but will make your cement stucco plaster last longer.)

By preventing your DuraBags from sunlight exposure, they should perform as well or even better than many other (more expensive) types of permanent, retaining wall building materials.

2. To relieve pressure from rainwater building up behind retaining walls, add occasional PVC pipes through the walls to act as "weep holes."