Gabions

Gabion Walls and Mattresses

A gabion is a wire basket filled with rock. Stacked and tied together, gabions form a wall that is heavy enough to retain soil, permeable enough to let water pass without building up pressure behind it, and flexible enough to settle without cracking the way a rigid concrete wall does. That combination makes them the right answer for a lot of channel banks, slopes, and retaining situations where a poured wall would be overkill or would fail.

Armor Site Services has been installing gabions since 2020 for general contractors across Texas and Oklahoma.

Where Gabions Make Sense

• Channel banks — armoring the sides of a drainage channel against scour
• Slope stabilization — holding a slope that will not hold itself
• Retaining structures — gravity walls where a poured wall is not required
• Gabion mattresses — low-profile baskets laid flat for channel bottoms and scour protection
• Headwalls and outfalls — protecting structures where concentrated flow exits

Built Right or It Bulges

Gabion work looks simple and it is not. Baskets have to be properly assembled, tied to each other, and braced internally so they hold their shape. Rock has to be sized right and hand-placed at the faces so the wall looks square instead of bulging. Filter fabric has to go behind the wall or fines migrate through and the slope settles. We do it the way the manufacturer's guide says to do it, because the difference shows up two years later.

Have a gabion line item out for bid? Call (972) 310-7293 and send us the plans.