Retaining Wall

MrsY

Hello, newbie to the Greenfingered board here! :hello:

We are looking to build a retaining wall to level a slope in our (new build) garden before turfing.

What is the best material to use for the wall - bricks, railway sleepers? What about breeze blocks?

The wall would need to be about 12 inches high and about 5 meters long.

There is a fence at the bottom of the slope, so should we build the wall right up against it, or should there be a gap?

Thanks in anticipation!

formidablelady

Hi Mrs Y
We moved into a brand new house 5 years ago with a steep sloping badly laid lawn. Every winter and most of the summer the ground was boggy even though we saw them lay drainage [obviouslynot enough] so last year we deciced to do 2 levels. Hubby hired a small digger and then he built a deep trench filled it with concrete and built 2 retaining walls with concrete blocks having never laid a brick in his life. Because they didn't look so good he rendered over them [not as hard as you think] with some of the concrete with a slight texture to hide the bricks. We then painted it white and it looks fab -really mediteranian. We also built some raised beds using thick tanelised timber may have been scaffolding planks, not sure, We also used this for a deck. I think your OT should have no trouble. Our quotes for our walls for the SAME MATERIALS were around £4000. Hubby did it for a fraction of that. Go for it!

formidablelady

Got hubby to take a pic today. Here is the link as I can't seem to get the image up on the forum.http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/712916/

Solomon_Broad

I'd go with breeze blocks. Though medium density blocks would probably be better. They look the same, but breeze blocks are much lighter in weight. I recommend them because you'll get the job done much more quickly. With bricks, it's similar but more fiddly.

If it needs to look good, then bricks would look nicer, but they'll probably cost you more.

With regards to the fence, I'd lay about 2"-4" away from it.