Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design 1 Apr 18, 2011 7:17 pm Hi All, Hoping some of you with prior experience might be able to shed some light into an issue that we have. Our rear boundary drops about 1-1.5 metres from the property to the rear boundary (about 8 metres). There is currently a retaining wall at the rear that was put up by the developer however this isn't high enough for us to be able to level off our land. I wanted to see if we could raise the height of the retaining wall - and share the cost. However the developer have told me that the current retaining wall structures would not be able to support this additional height. As such we are in a dilemma as we cannot increase the height without rebuilding the existing wall at considerable cost (across about 12 blocks of land and currently 1.5m high). This would be applicable to all the lots as they have the same drop. We will also have the privacy issue as the rear fencing would appear to be almost level with the rear of our building due to the drop. Has anyone ever been in a similar situation and what option did you end up going for that was suitable for everyone? BTW - we are in an estate where all new construction and land is owned by the developer Regards, Qonyx Project History Deposit - 20/4/2010 Land Settled - 20/8/2010 Council - 30/9/2010 Slab - 17/11/2010 Bricks - 28/01/2011 Roof - 5/02/2011 Gyprock - 4/03/2011 Re: Have you ever had a retaining wall dispute with develope 2Apr 18, 2011 11:24 pm I should have done a search on all forums.. i found heaps of information on this topic details of all topics related to retaining was are available in search.php?st=0&sk=t&sd=d&sr=topics&keywords=retaining+wall&sf=titleonly Project History Deposit - 20/4/2010 Land Settled - 20/8/2010 Council - 30/9/2010 Slab - 17/11/2010 Bricks - 28/01/2011 Roof - 5/02/2011 Gyprock - 4/03/2011 Re: Have you ever had a retaining wall dispute with develope 3Apr 19, 2011 2:28 pm You could retain your own land around the boundaries without having to retain any other blocks. You may need an engineers design depending on what state you are in (and perhaps council) The problem you will have is that it slopes downward away form the house so the rear boundary needs to be retained. It may be possible to have the arrangement below, but you would need to consult the engineer who sis the footings for your house and address the angle of repose in regards to the proximity to the house footings/foundations Current? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ New? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ It would mean you'd need a slope or stair to get down to the level but it would also allow you to have a mezzanine/deck area above the yard if you wished (this may involve some far more substantial engineering first thou.) Maybe this????? Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Have you ever had a retaining wall dispute with develope 4Apr 19, 2011 7:56 pm I'm not quite sure if this is the same situation, but it sounds similar. As you can see on the attached pic, for some reason, the developers didn't build our retaining wall high enough but did for the block behind our property! We realised all this when it was too late (after the builders had cut the block). We then went to the developers and because our builders had "altered the land", it was our responsibility to do any further retaining and the developers washed their hands of it. TBH, I'm not sure our developers would have done anything for us had we mentioned it to them prior to building, but that's what we got told. We just had to suck it up and forgo $3k in additional retaining to level our backyard. Like ⋅ Add a comment ⋅ Pin to Ideaboard ⋅ Re: Have you ever had a retaining wall dispute with develope 5Apr 22, 2011 6:32 pm chris and kate... thanks for spending all that time with your response you have certainly help give us some options... it seems that we are actuallycaught out as our plans actually state the 1 metre drop from floor level to the top of the rear boundary retaining wall so i'll just have to suck it up as don't have any other option. i met with one of the project managers and he was helpful in that he agreed to raise the fenceline from 1.8 to 2.1m by 30cm.. which would mean a net fence height of about 80cm from floor level.. which was better than the original 50cm net fence height!!! he also highlighted that the existing boundary retaining wall height could not be increased because the steel supports were only built to the current height and welding the support to be higher wouldn't be structurally sound.... so we now have two options - both of which we have to pay for... a) create a dead man retaining wall - which would basically be a 1m x 1m x 15 trench runnning along the rear boundary b) create a multilevel back yard - which sounds interesting but still unsure anyway we are leaning toward the dead man retaining wall even though we lose 15sqm of rear yard - we intended on planting screening plants anyway - however don't know how they will go so low in the ground Project History Deposit - 20/4/2010 Land Settled - 20/8/2010 Council - 30/9/2010 Slab - 17/11/2010 Bricks - 28/01/2011 Roof - 5/02/2011 Gyprock - 4/03/2011 Re: Have you ever had a retaining wall dispute with develope 6Apr 22, 2011 6:35 pm n&n02 I'm not quite sure if this is the same situation, but it sounds similar. We just had to suck it up and forgo $3k in additional retaining to level our backyard. Thanks for responding - it helps to know when you here of other people in the same type of situation and knowing that it is 'normal'. I did a bit of digging around and this seems to be one of the most contentious issues with the build process as you generally don't think about it until its too late.. anyway much like you guys... we will also suck up and pay the 3k that is going to cost us... how much did your quotes cost per/sqm? Project History Deposit - 20/4/2010 Land Settled - 20/8/2010 Council - 30/9/2010 Slab - 17/11/2010 Bricks - 28/01/2011 Roof - 5/02/2011 Gyprock - 4/03/2011 Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5143 yes it does, you've just not understood it. theres a difference. 4 5314 That is a really good attitude Akin to you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. 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