Landscape adhesive

[Whyzman]

Has anyone had any experience with repairing walls held together with landscape adhesive?

I've some step sidewalls created using Versa-lok blocks. The nylon pins could not be used since I didn't want to step-back the rows. Instead, I used landscape adhesive. Some mischievous person backed into one of the sidewalls pushing it away from the steps.

Only one of the cap blocks was damaged. I will need to disassemble/demo the wall to be able to repack and level the class 5 base. Has anyone attempted to separate landscape adhesived blocks? Any hints? I was thinking about trying a propane torch to warm them up and then try a brick chisel to see if they will separate.

[Paver]

The propane torch (the wand type used for torching weeds, etc.) works well to heat the block and soften some adhesives, definitely try that.

[Whyzman]

I went ahead a tried dismembering without heat first. I picked up a mason's 2 1/2 flat chisel. It has a center-point edge and is about 4" long. 'Tis a pretty sharp bugger with the plastic "can't wack your hand" saver at the top. I was able to drive it between the blocks separating them. I hadn't gotten crazy when applying the adhesive so this method worked well.

I used a 3-lb drilling hammer in conjunction with the chisel to not only separate, but also to remove excess adhesive...as I mentioned, it was nice and sharp. Cost me under $10.

All actually went well. The largest chunk of the step sidewall had 5 scribed and cut capstones that I was able to leave together as one piece and fulcrum out of the way. I reset the base with new block and replaced the "chunk" by using a 6' pinch far and fulcrum technique. That saved me oodles of time not having to re-scribe and cut all those capstones.

[Paver]

Nice! Glad to hear you got them apart with damaging the blocks or caps.