Anyone built their own retaining wall?

The developer of my estate has retained 2 sides of my block but not the back of the block. It's not compulsory for me to retain the back but it will look better and be better for run off etc. The quotes I've been given so far range from $6800 to $13000 for the same type of wall. This just seems like a waste of money to me and I was wondering if anyone has built their own retaining wall and if so how? I'd appreciate any info any of you have.

Yes, a long time ago. We used large limestone blocks. Needed to recruit some muscly friends to help lift and to borrow a cement mixer. Only 2 blocks high. Sealed and lined afterwards to protect from weather and to stop soil leaching through. Check local regulations - above a certain height you probably need council approval +/- engineer drawings. Ours looked great and is still standing about 12 years later.

I've used the small concrete blocks which are easily lifted by youself.

is some more information bere: http://www.anewhouse.com.au/2014/03/blo ... loose-lay/

I've done a few different types of walls:

• Loose stacked concrete blocks
• Treated pine posts and sleepers
• Core-filled bessa blocks on concrete footings
• Poured concrete

The easiest was the loose-stacked blocks as bashworth mentioned. They look good, and are easy to fix if you get any movement. The downsides are they aren't cheap, and you loose more land than the other types due the setback slope they have.

The wall I'm most happy with is one of the core-filled bessa blocks ones. It looks good, doesn't take up room, the fence is mounted up close to it at the top, and it's still dead-straight after several years. At 1.2m tall, it had to go through council on the house plans, and have engineering on the footing size and reo details. The construction is a bit involved, but nothing too difficult, though it helps if you can get a concrete truck right up to it to pour the footing - oh and the core-filling: that's the painful part.

Formed up concrete is quite cheap and strong, but doesn't always look the best if its going to be visible. The formwork can be a fair bit of cost and work, and needs to be strong to support the concrete and not bow.

The treated pine walls are fairly cheap and simple, but can easily look scruffy and I don't see them lasting well into the longer term.

whichever wall you decide to build, the number 1 golden rule is to ensure there is sufficient drainage behind the wall. Most retaining walls fail due to poor or failed drainage.

Have a peruse at my build. Both timber and dry stack masonry walls in my thread.

viewtopic.php?f=19&t=44663

What sort of walls do you already have? Are you trying to match them? How high is the wall and wll it be supporting anything other than a fence?

I've done a couple of treated pine walls, not too hard unless the digging is hard. We ended up giving up on digging at a mates wall building party and he got a mini excavator to dig the post holes there was so much rock there. Cheap and easy. One wall I was given a rough quote for at $12k but ended up doing for under $1k in materials + a BBQ for the labourers.

I've also fixed up a besser block wall that fell over and that was a bit more involved with mixing mortar etc.

How did you get on with your retaining wall Jojeke??