It is really common for people to get rid of old sidewalks and patios by breaking them up into small pieces and then staking them to make decorative retaining walls.
This will be more difficult to do in the future because today most concrete “flatwork” has wire re-enforcement in it. Here is one such wall.

In some ways I find them more attractive than those “all-the-same” blocks you can buy at home improvement centers. Those blocks are however engineered to be interlocking so they actually can be used to make much more functional retaining walls—-not merely decorative walls.
I thought this concept of reusing materials was taken a little too far when I saw this “waste-brick” retaining wall. While it is kind of “interesting” it must have been even more “interesting” to put the thing together. In relation to the home that this wall surrounds, it looks almost as if the house grew from such beginnings.


Charles Buell, Seattle Home Inspector
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That is UGLY and does not look very substantial for it’s purpose. They should have used them as pavers on the dead-ended concrete stairs.
Dan, it seems closer to being “art” than a retaining wall 🙂