Hello,
I have to put in some extensive retaining walls on my block before construction starts.
I just got my quote back, $21,250
OH.MY.GOD
Does anyone have any experience in what retaining walls cost to suppt/install?
It's for 14.4 and 9.6m of steel H beam uprights and slab logs as the horizontals, ranging from 600mm high to 1800mm high.
I can't afford it and am at a bit of a loss as to what to do.
Do you think I should install the horizontals myself?
HELP!!
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Browse Forums Building A New House Re: Retaining Walls 3Mar 28, 2008 9:08 am OMG that seems horrendous! I agree with Cookie - more quotes! After 4 years - we're in! Re: Retaining Walls 4Mar 28, 2008 9:11 am Oops that does seem to be a lot !!! far too high
We have to build many retaining walls but none so high and may have sandstone rock face on some of the sides.. the timber retaining wall is by far the cheapest option I am told ... Buildling a Clarendon Crestmead in Sydney DA Approved on 20/03/2008 Slab Poured on 02/09/2008 Frame Completed 15/10/2008 Brickwork Complete 2/02/2009 Roofwork Complete 05/03/2009 Re: Retaining Walls 5Mar 28, 2008 10:18 am Doh
It is with timber - very plain. It's actually taken me 5 months to get just 1 quote. I've tried and tried with 12 different landscapers but they all just gave me the runaround. I think they don't take me seriously as a young single female. I will try again, any reccomendations in Sydney MOST welcome! Building a Jandson Espirit in Pennant Hills "What is the use of a home, if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"Henry Daniel Thereau Re: Retaining Walls 6Mar 28, 2008 10:55 am Our retaining walls are around $20,000. Our builder said we could get someone else to do it possibly cheaper - but I got a landscaper who builds engineer designed retaining walls and he couldn't beat the price. I feel more comfortable with the builder building on a retaining wall he built. He can't blame anyone else if something goes wrong - hopefully it won't. Fi has moved in!! Re: Retaining Walls 7Mar 28, 2008 1:50 pm wow! Try to get a few more quotes- have you tried Rolling stone landscapers in Sydney? I 'd seen their signs around Sydney quite a lot. Try big companies because they may have engineers on their payroll. It seems like it is expensive because it requires H steel beams? for support- not just simple retainer wall.  18 Dec 2007 144 Sydney Senior Member Re: Retaining Walls 8Mar 28, 2008 3:10 pm  sammywow! Try to get a few more quotes- have you tried Rolling stone landscapers in Sydney? Ha Ha Ha, Good luck with that. You wont get Rolling stone Landscapes to even talk to you on the phone for anything under $100k and even that you'd be pretty lucky. Dean Herald ( The owner of Rolling Stone Landscapes) has won many Australian and International Awards, Published his own books and has his garden in every landscape/garden/pool magazine there is. Therefor everyone wants Rolling Stone Landscapes to do the backyard. What area in sydney are you in? Most councils require council approval and engineers drawings for retaining walls over 1000mm high sammy. It seems like it is expensive because it requires H steel beams? for support- not just simple retainer wall. H beams are not that much dearer than treated pine posts. Alot of people prefer them because you dont have posts sticking out in front of the wall taking up space. I think that price is quite high but a ring around a few more places will give you a better idea. Does that price included any excavation and/or tip fees? Depending on how much dirt removal is necessary just excavating a site can cost many thousands of dollars. Re: Retaining Walls 9Mar 28, 2008 3:51 pm As per above, anything over 1-meter high needs to be 'engineered'. Below that you can do it yourself.
Perhaps you could contact an engineering company and ask them to come out to give an "indicative quote". An "indicative quote" is just their estimation of what builders/landscapers would charge to do the work. It's often a good way to get a handle on things because they're not the ones who would be doing the work, so have no incentive to mislead you. This should at least let you know if your one and only quote is going to be typical. I used an engineer where I am to give some indicative quotes on a retaining wall. He also guestimated some costs for other work which turned out to be spot on. Sometimes those "pre-purchase inspection" companies have engineers to do this sort of thing. Re: Retaining Walls 10Mar 28, 2008 8:15 pm At that sort of price I'd be also thinking of not using timber.
Sure it is more expensive to use other material, , but long term it is going to last longer. And I'd go the engineer out and a design report first. Steve Re: Retaining Walls 11Mar 28, 2008 10:30 pm Hi Shady,
Oops, I apologise. I live in Dural right now and Rolling stone is doing the landscaping for a neighbour down the street. No wonder it cost them $350k just for landscaping! Re: Retaining Walls 12Mar 29, 2008 12:48 pm Thanks for all of the suggestions.
I've had the retaining wall engineer designed, ( that took 2 months and cost $500 too!) and asked him to design the cheapest one possible. Design was approved by Private Certifying Authority. The design includes 13 2400mm H steel beam uprights (the quote costed these as $631 each, thats *$8000+!) spaced 2.4m apart and then the slab wood wales as horizontals at 150mm thick. If H beams arent much more expensive than timber posts then I think he is taking me for a ride. All site excavation has been done so the job will include no further excavation, just the digging of the holes for the H beam uprights. I managed to get 3 more companies to visit the site and quote over this weekend, so hopefully that will give a good outcome. Otherwise I will consider going to another engineer to re-design the wall as I wasn't too inpressed with the other guy (I dont think he even visited onsite! Just worked off plans) so perhaps he really didn't design the cheapest/best for the situation. I wanted blocks that I could install myself but the engineer said they weren't strong enough (??!!) Building a Jandson Espirit in Pennant Hills "What is the use of a home, if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"Henry Daniel Thereau 18 Dec 2007 144 Sydney Senior Member Re: Retaining Walls 13Mar 30, 2008 1:00 pm sammy I live in Dural right now and Rolling stone is doing the landscaping for a neighbour down the street. No wonder it cost them $350k just for landscaping! LOL that sounds about right. I know they do a lot of work out that way. I think thats where the owner lives. Here's their website, If you picked up any landscapeing/backyard magazine in the last 18 months you'll probably recognise some of the backyards Re: Retaining Walls 14Mar 31, 2008 8:44 pm h beams cost price are around $35 a lineal mtr so a 2.4 mtr h beam galvanised at trade price is $84 plus gst + delivery
call your locaber supplier and ask them what the cost of 150mm treated pine or iron bark sleepers are then do the cost comparison a wall that is 1.8 mtr high needs an upright that is 3.6 mtrs long, not 2.4 mtrs long what ever you go up in heigth you have to go down as a general rule, but this can change with diffrent sub soil types if the engineer has stated a 2.4 mtr uprigth for a 1.8 mtr wall then report them to the building commision, that wall will fall down in under 6 months Da Vinci Outdoor Living Architectural landscaping http://www.davincioutdoor.com Re: Retaining Walls 15Apr 01, 2008 1:54 pm  davincia wall that is 1.8 mtr high needs an upright that is 3.6 mtrs long, not 2.4 mtrs long what ever you go up in heigth you have to go down as a general rule, but this can change with diffrent sub soil types if the engineer has stated a 2.4 mtr uprigth for a 1.8 mtr wall then report them to the building commision, that wall will fall down in under 6 months Perhaps the wall includes a significant amount of concrete at the bottom? Would this affect the length of the H beams? ps what is the difference between an "H" beam and an "I" beam? Re: Retaining Walls 17Apr 01, 2008 4:15 pm Latest quote is $17,800
Best I can do So I've signed to go with them The engineer will attend onsite once the holes are dug but before the H posts are concreted in to certify that its being done according to plan, I'm sure they'll use the longer H posts. Thanks for the price indications, just what I was after. If I could do it myself I would. Its so much money I can't believe it. You live and learn I suppose... Heres hoping the rest of the build goes without a hitch Building a Jandson Espirit in Pennant Hills "What is the use of a home, if you haven't got a tolerable planet to put it on?"Henry Daniel Thereau Re: Retaining Walls 18Apr 01, 2008 4:25 pm How close to the boundary are your retaining walls going to be?
If not too close, then you should be able to make the cut more gentle (not 90 degrees) and then use click together type blocks.
Cheers for that..
plastering wall and getting it even/smooth/square sounds like it might be above my patience/paygrade 2 3801 Thanks for the feedback Of course you would expect to get the bush-off treatment from their engineer they are paid by the builder what do you expect him to say? As 2870… 13 5900  yep. cool. thermal imaging is the bomb for this stuff. Get them to run the camera over your ceilings too while they are there. 11 3158 |
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I considered the door/window reveals, but…
