Hi there.
I did write a post when we bought our house about responsibility for a retaining wall at the back of our place. I've sorted all of that out now with the aid of the original building drawings, the neighbour and a solicitor. So we're in a good position in that our neighbour and I are in agreeance to build a new retainer on the boundary and share the cost.
So now comes the technical challenge. The house at the rear is 2.4 meters higher than our ground level and we currently have a tiered pine retainer being just over a meter each with a gap of about the same between them. This is end of life and has to be replaced. The council said the new wall needs to be "masonary" and an engineer has drawn a core filled concrete design for us. The trouble is the quote I"ve received is massive - "160k plus". That's negative equity territory for us (the wall would be 30m long and 2m high).
I'm now scrambling around looking for alternatives. Could there be a cheaper alternative material that still meets the "masonary" requirement? A chunk of the cost relates to the removal of the old wall(s), I thought building the new wall in front of the bottom tier and filling the gap to the second tier with rocks or whatever might save costs associated with removing the old wall and the risk management activites associated with it (checking piers of neighbours house, propping etc.). Could this mean significant savings and would it be allowed? The pine will continue to degrade over time whilst buried I guess. I also lose a fair bit of land this way.
Any other thought or ideas?
Thanks..