All you need to know about Gabion Types, Advantages, and Applications

What are Gabions?

Gabion comes from the Italian word gabbione, which means big cage. A gabion is a wire mesh cage or box filled with stone or rock (sometimes broken concrete). The main types of gabion are used in civil engineering, landscaping, military works and road building.

Gabions are made from either double-twisted hexagonal wire mesh or welded wire mesh. They are manufactured and delivered flat, then assembled and filled on site. How long a gabion lasts depends mainly on the durability of the wire: the thickness of its galvanising, and whether it also has a PVC coating.

The type of gabion decides how it is used. Architects also use gabions more and more, for function as well as looks, because a gabion wall is a low-cost way to build a structural wall with a natural stone face.

Gabions Types and their Applications

Gabions come in several forms. Because the wire mesh can be shaped easily, the common types are gabion walls, gabion baskets, gabion mattresses, gabion sacks and gabion wire mesh.

Gabion Basket: box-shaped wire mesh baskets in a range of sizes, used mainly in highways and railway works for retaining walls, embankment support and culvert protection.

Gabion Mattresses: also called Reno mattresses, these are much shallower than gabion boxes and are laid flat to line channels and protect riverbeds, banks and slopes from erosion and scour.

Gabion Sacks: cylindrical sacks of double-twisted hexagonal wire mesh, filled with stone to form a porous, flexible unit. They can be filled and placed quickly, often by crane, so they are commonly used in hydraulic works during emergencies, including placing underwater.

Gabion Wire Mesh: used on highway and railway cuttings for slope stabilisation and to stop falling rock and stones. Welded mesh or wire mesh gabions are also used as the facing of embankments reinforced with geogrid.

Gabion Walls: stone-filled gabion walls are an old technique that architects and designers now use widely. They are strong and look natural, and the filled baskets, laced together, act as one flexible, permeable structure. They are usually cheaper than a concrete wall of the same height and need little maintenance beyond periodic inspection.

Advantages of Gabion Walls

• Appearance: gabion walls use natural stone that blends with the surroundings. They also work as noise barriers.
• Modular gabion cladding can give a building or landscape a strong stone texture instead of a plain concrete face.
• With suitable wire coating and durable stone, gabion walls last for decades with little maintenance.
• Where stone is available on or near the site, purchase and transport costs are low.
• Gabion walls are permeable and drain freely, so water pressure does not build up behind them and drain pipes or weep holes are usually not needed. A nonwoven geotextile filter is normally placed between the retained soil and the gabions so that soil does not wash out through the stone.
• Vegetation can grow into the voids, which helps bind the fill and gives landscaping opportunities.
• Gabion walls are flexible, so moderate soil movement and settlement do not crack them.

Their most common uses are retaining walls, channel linings, slope protection, flood and water barriers, embankments, and decorative features in patios and gardens.

Ocean Global in India supplies all of these gabion types: gabion baskets, gabion sacks, gabion mattresses, double-twisted hexagonal gabions and welded mesh gabions. We can help with installation, pricing, design and customisation to suit your project.

Contact us today for your Gabions Requirement.

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