I'm southwest Brisbane. For a couple of years now, my tired old (10 years old) treated pine retaining wall at the front of the property (1m high) has been falling apart and coming to bits. Behind it is a 40,000 concrete shell pool. The pool genuinely isn't going anywhere fast - but the wall is coming apart, the colourbond fence that sits atop the wall is coming down and it is now subsiding the concrete at the front edge of the pool. It's about 11.5m of wall frontage that needs replacement.
The previous owners did the cheapest nastiest thing they could - they used treated pine H4 timber for the retaining wall and went to the minimum bare height they needed to before it'd become an "engineered" problem. So much so that the concrete slopes downwards across the pool area to meet the lower wall. It literally lasted 10 years then has just started to crumble, bow and crack.
After months and months of wildly varying quotes - I'm incredibly frustrated.
What I've concluded so far is the following:
- All the "hi-pages" mob will happily quote me for a retaining wall (varies wildly in cost from about 7k to 15k).
- None of them will touch the concrete work/leveling work required to do this properly and fix up the subsided concrete: "Oh, we don't do that type of thing - you'll need another contractor for that"
- Those that do concrete won't touch the retaining wall/aren't interested there either.
- Of those that do retaining walls, they all push their pet interest/most experience in whatever product. Some say concrete sleepers, warn me off any other products at all costs. Others say link-blocks, warn me off others. Some say big lumps of sandstone - and say the other products are rubbish for this application. So much so that I *really* genuinely do not know what the "right" type of retaining wall for this job is given people don't seem capable of given qualified unbiased advice.
It's been a really rotten experience as we get quote after expensive quote.
*ONE company so far has given me what seems to be an almost holistic perspective (they'd try to do everything we've asked...that is, build me a retaining wall, level my concrete, put my pool fence up):
- 32 * sleepers for retaining wall (concrete)
- Exposed aggregate concrete, mesh(sl72), debox, cutting, 48 m2
- Exposed aggregate concere, mesh(sl72), debox, cutting, 24 m2
- Wet Hire Hitachi 3.5t excavator + tipper truck for waste
- Tip fees removal per tonne
...is $35,500.
I'm frustrated and confused. None of them will give me any clarity on design or dedicated planning - everyone just draws me a sketch. I even offered to pay a company to come out and consult and do it properly - and they never showed up!
What am I missing here? Clearly, I'm going about this the wrong way.
I'm looking for a holistic approach to get the concrete level, get the ground around the pool level, get the retaining wall "done right" - but nobody seems to provide me an end-to-end approach.
I'd really appreciate the input from some experienced folks here. I've never engaged landscaping/retaining wall services in my life - but so far, it's all coming across as really hasty, rushed, poorly thought out and "seat of pants" style entities that aren't really there to help me with the big picture - they'll just do their bit and rack off.
Given the huge variation in quotes and what people are willing to provide - I am not sure if the costings I have for the one entity that gave me some end-to-end advice is even sane. $35k seems like a stunning amount of money for a retaining wall and some concreting, right? Or am I misguided and just don't understand the costs of this industry?
Can anyone recommend whom I should be engaging with? What way I should turn? Can upload photos if useful.
Thanks.
z