Retaining wall woes

stuart45

The NHBC guidance for retaining walls is over 600mm needs an SE design. From memory the LABC recommend over 1 metre. A lot depends on ground conditions. Ground sloping a lot towards the wall with high water tables is different to level ground in stable chalk soil for example. Brickwork is stronger than blockwork, unless hollow blocks with rebar are used.
Better to over than under engineer with retaining walls.

Bendy_House

Section62 said:

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)

Yes, but still... :-)