To build a sculptural wall and make a splash

This has been my latest foray… The Ark has always needed a good boundary wall and I’ve always wanted a boat hull around it…. this is a photo record, hopefully self-explanatory. Short video walk-around of wall: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MA8sZXzcYCc

Ive used about 40 40kg bags of cement and 4 cubic metres of sand. wall is about 50 metres long. Yet to do the inside second coat, so that will take another maybe 6-10 bags of cement.

I tried a different reinforcing structure as it was mostly flat wall. Waratah steel fence posts (straight in the ground), with some L rebar wired on to give a footing at right angles to the wall (concreted in). and a coil of the famous ‘number 8’ fencing wire as the main horizontal reinforcing and support for the two layers of chickenwire. Quite minimalist! D10 rebar along the top. in curved higher front section I used 668 square mesh rebar sheets. Next time I’ll try a twin layer of 668 with chickenwire sandwiched between. More straight and flat, and way less work if I only have to tie the two sheets together at intervals instead of lacing the chickenwire onto each side. I think the plaster will go over the square mesh ok, as long as I use a thinnish first coat so it doesn’t sag. For this wall I did three coats, scratching with the plaster rake in between coats for good adhesion. third coat I sponge finished with sponge from an old seat!