Browse Forums Landscape & Garden Design Re: Cheapest retaining wall - ugly is okay! 2Aug 05, 2011 10:55 am What is the access like under the deck? If you don't have sufficient height then digging post holes could be a pain. Treated pine is pretty cheap but the old saying applies. "You get what you pay for" Treated pine does not suit all retaining wall situations. Have you considered a Rock wall. You may be lucky and find someone who has some rock and just wants to get rid of it. Re: Cheapest retaining wall - ugly is okay! 4Aug 05, 2011 4:01 pm Thanks for your responses - at the back door of our new house is a drop to ground level of about 80cm. there is just about 20cm of dirt then it drops. we are decking from the door level which will leave space underneath to store some stuff like lawnmower etc. So as far as post holes go we should be okay. The engineers of the house say a retaining wall is not necessary to hold back the dirt at the back of the house but it would definitely be neater and more "finished" (even though the deck will cover it up) and a family member suggested we consider doing one. Thanks again Re: Cheapest retaining wall - ugly is okay! 5Aug 05, 2011 4:24 pm my walls cost $385m2 so for that price you'll get 5m in length done in Treated pine sleepers with galvanized steel posts. You could use the treated sleepers with a plastic sheet backing to keep the moisture of the timber and use timber posts. use 200mm (h) x 50mm (d) treated pine for the sleepers and cypress posts. Cypress 100x100 @$8.5m treated pine sleepers 200x50 @around $20 for a 2.4 mt sleeper, but i would try to get 3m sleepers an put post every 1.5m, as this will help stop bending of the sleeper. Re: Cheapest retaining wall - ugly is okay! 6Aug 05, 2011 8:27 pm How cheap ? My SIL retained her house block to about 1m, with used tyres in a stepped up the slope, bricked pattern. Each tyre was filled with dirt and then a creeper planted in it. The tyres were not visible at all after a couple of years and it has actually done a good job of retaining the dirt. It has been there about 12 years now. Re: Cheapest retaining wall - ugly is okay! 7Aug 05, 2011 9:14 pm i was also going to suggest the tyres. We did this on a farm in a slopy spot where we wanted to put a shed. got tyres from the local tyre place, stacked them and filled them with dirt. worked a treat. Building NBG Buckingham 46 on Property in rural Victoria my Building Thread viewtopic.php?f=31&t=46837 Re: Cheapest retaining wall - ugly is okay! 8Aug 07, 2011 10:53 pm Be aware of the heavy metals that leach from tyres. A dry stone wall can be cost effective but time consuming. Look good. Gabion walls are also quite good and cost effective. at most it will have a short lintel which could be moved up just below the ceiling or even above. Above means you need to patch the cornice and might need to deal with… 2 61371 Thank you again Simeon.. I will call my certifier for that. Have a good day 4 5179 Thanks for the insights, that makes perfect sense, and yeah, I will be leaning on the experience of the excavator operator entirely. 6 16122 |