Retaining wall woes

Bendy_House

Blimey, £8.5k for an 8m length of 1m high wall? Good grief. Concrete block laid flat would be surely enough?

I guess there's a lot of preparation first, removing all the old wall, getting it dumped, digging new founds, pouring, and then the new wall. But, still...

I would suggest that the new wall would not even require rendering on the neighb's side, but it would be better to have it finished with something like a trellis screen. Render applied to a retaining wall doesn't lend itself well to being painted, for example, so if it can't be painted, then little reason for rendering in the first place. So, the most basic of block walls.

Section62

FreeBear said:

Do you mean Gabion Crates ?

If properly sized, they may well be an option.

Gabions would need a lot of excavation back into the OP's garden - unless the neighbour is willing to allow the centreline of the wall to be moved well over onto their land instead.

There's also a fair quantity of decent quality rock fill to be imported... not necessarily that cheap in the current climate.

Bendy_House

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6287778/retaining-wall-neighb-wants-it-better-than-original

Section62

Bendy_House said:

Link

Thanks Bendy.

I was doing a google site: search with various keywords like "retaining wall neighbour"... but no joy.  Strange one.

naf123

Have you monitored the crack ? Did it get worse ? Mayhe it's just a settlement thing . Is there anything to indicate that the wall is unsafe ? Eg does it lean like the leaning tower of Pisa ? I guess photos would be helpful here 

Bendy_House

Still reeling at the quote! £1k per metre2 of flat block wall? Shoorley shum mishtake?

Section62

Bendy_House said:

Still reeling at the quote! £1k per metre2 of flat block wall? Shoorley shum mishtake?

There's a lot of work and costs involved...

All that digging.

Breaking out the existing wall and foundations.

Carting everything to the skip.

Skip costs.

....all before starting to put those expensive new materials into the ground.


Pictures would help give a better idea, but some of the things that will influence the price is the ease of access and the amount of care that will need to be taken.  Most of the work will ideally be done from the neighbour's (lower) side - but if they aren't going to allow barrowing across their property to a skip parked on their drive then the job has just got that bit harder and more labour intensive.  Ditto for whether you can bring in a mini-digger to help with the digging, or if everything needs to be done the traditional way.

And given the existing wall has apparently moved and cracked you'll want to make darn sure the job is done to the very highest standard so you won't be back in a year rebuilding it again - this time at your own cost.

Bendy_House

Yes. But still...

Section62

Bendy_House said:

Yes. But still...

Well if that wasn't enough...

There is also the issue being a trader of whether or not you'll get paid for the job.  You can't ask for money up front as the internet knows that is a 'sure sign of a cowboy'.  And the internet has many experts very willing to confirm that an 'Ok' job is 'the worst thing they've ever seen and no way should you be paying for that'.

There are economies that can be made - but there is a risk in doing that with a client you don't know who might ask for the shortcut and then complain bitterly the job hasn't been done properly.  Stacking concrete blocks on their side makes a perfectly serviceable wall (many thousands of farm headwalls have been built in that way) - but do that in someone's garden and a forum like this good one will pronounce that a professional shouldn't be doing such a bodge.

And the whole situation gets worse the more expensive jobs become through the effects of inflation and scarcity.  People don't want to pay £1k/m for a retaining wall, they don't think someone else's time and expertise (+materials) is worth that, so the unscrupulous client will accept the quote and then make extracting full payment as difficult as possible.

There are as many cowboy clients as there are cowboy builders.

So the savvy trader quotes for the job with an 'allowance' for partial or non-payment.  Let's call them 'overheads' if anyone asks for more detail. 


(not suggesting the OP or anyone else here wouldn't pay a fair bill)

FreeBear

A 1m high retaining wall needs to be designed and constructed properly. Depending on local topography, there could be a substantial load against it. It is not a job for Bob the Builder. On top of that, there will be some serious groundworks involved needing "big boy's toys". Mini-digger, dump truck, grab hire, etc.

One should never cut corners with a retaining wall - I pass one each day going to work. A couple of years back, Bob the Builder had rebuilt it using standard concrete blocks. It didn't take long for it to start bulging, and it collapsed a few months back.