GABIONS - SZCZYRK - POLAND

House in Szczyrk surrounded by a gabion ‘Gabions are a perfectly simple engineering solution.

I'm fascinated with them, ever since I got to know them’, says Marianna Kowal from Siatex. ‘We have already put Gabions in the company and in the private garden, so they have been known to me for many years. But the design and construction of the cladding at the house in Szczyrk was innovative for us.’ Elegance put into the countryside House number 30A is a beautiful wooden structure glued to a steep slope. To get to the door from the road you have to climb a dozen or so stairs next to the lower garage. It was formed in the cavity of the concrete retaining wall which constituted the slope strengthening. However, the concrete structure did not match the climate of this place. The owner was looking for materials that appealed to nature, the beautiful landscape surrounding the house. In the end, he decided to cover it with gabion baskets filled with local stones - sandstone. But why the gabions? Gabions are designed as resistance constructions to prevent landslides or other rock materials. These are baskets made of welded mesh, connected by means of spirals, tie wire or clips. However, they fulfill many more functions, and therefore they can be used in a huge spectrum of realizations. It is worth paying attention to their aesthetic values, thanks to which customers decide to use gabion walls also in lowland areas. They often replace panel fences or fencing mesh for private properties.

What is important, the company Betafence, producing gabion baskets, was the first in Europe to receive the CE mark (which means that these bins are compliant with the requirements of European Union directives). The baskets also have technical approval of the Research Institute of Roads and Bridges in Warsaw, no. AT / 2010-03-1790. Labor-intensive gabion facade The implementation of the gabion cladding required a lot of work. First of all, it was necessary to develop an effective way to fasten the grids with the starting profile to the concrete wall. The stones had to be systematically stacked in the next baskets so that the structure was still stable. In addition, the retaining wall was not vertical everywhere, so the differences had to be level with the thickness of the stone. Many inventions required laying flat stones to create a uniform surface. All these works were done by two people - the owner of the house in Szczyrk and co-owner of Siatex. Eye-catching gabions To fill the gabion baskets we used sandstone with the addition of quartz from the Skrzyczny massif. Such a gabion facade attracts attention regardless of the weather and is kind of advertise itself. ‘My assessment of this project may not be objective, as I am a lover of gabions and I have arranged the entire stone myself. I recommend the Gabion façade to others with full conviction’, Marianna Kowal encourages.

A design decorating the area to this day Gabion baskets filled with sandstone were attached to the retaining walls in Szczyrk in 2014. They serve till today, perfectly fitting into the mountainous landscape of southern Poland. At the request of the owner of the house, 19 meters of fencing was installed next to the garage wall. Gabions not only create a more decorative image of this property but also play an isolating role. This way, our client received what is pleasing to the eye and useful in one.

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