Browse Forums Building Standards; Getting It Right! 1 Dec 21, 2013 8:16 am Hi All We are looking at buying a block that has a slope, probably about 2m from the street to the rear of the block. In order to build the house we want we would need to level the block. This would mean building a 2m retaining wall along the rear of the property and therefore the neighbours existing fence. Are there any rules dictating what you can build in regards to retaining? If we retain and then put a fence on top of that there will be about a 3.5m drop to the neighbours yard. Are you allowed to do this sort of thing in Western Australia? In order to build the block needs to be level and the only way to get it level is to retain and backfill. Anyone feedback would be appreciated. Re: Retaining walls 2Dec 21, 2013 11:07 am I assume that you have a front yard and a back yard, therefore the length of your house will be somewhere more than half depth but significantly less than the entire depth. Your retaining wall could be only 1 metre high (or you could have two retaining walls one at boundary and the second set back) and also what is to stop you from elevating your floor level so the house is not se too low? Just putting forward some ideas to help you along. Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Retaining walls 3Dec 21, 2013 2:56 pm You don't have to have a level site to build a house (even though that seems the most common thing in WA. Another solution is using a drop edge beam (see: http://www.anewhouse.com.au/2013/07/drop-edge-beams/) The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Retaining walls 5Dec 22, 2013 10:46 am I'm not sure what the call this style of wall but 2 houses being built near us are using them. I like them, hopefully not to expensive as we might use. (Cheaper than limestone blocks?) We have 4m fall over build envelope, plan to cut fill at middle point and have split level design working down slope too. Re: Retaining walls 6Dec 22, 2013 3:37 pm Don't have an updated pic, but they have now put another retain wall on the footings in the first and second pics. Re: Retaining walls 7Dec 22, 2013 4:14 pm I am looking at different options for the retaining wall. I had a rough quote for a limestone block retaining wall at 1.8m x 30m long and the guy said it would be around $35k - $40k. I nearly fell off the perch. There must be cheaper alternatives for a retaining wall. I will be looking into pillar and post concrete retaining and also a brick retaining wall. If anyone else knows of any retaining options that are cost effective but can be built to that height then please let me know. The wall will not have any structures within 3m of it so there should not be too much force placed on it besides the volume of sand it will be retaining. Re: Retaining walls 8Dec 24, 2013 8:55 am Reinforced Besser block. It also will be reasonably expensive because you need a pretty big footing to start with as with all the other walls. It is not something you want to cheap out on as it is a big job to do right the first time. You definitely don't want a wall like that to start falling apart after only a few years. Stewie Re: Retaining walls 9Dec 24, 2013 3:56 pm Try Zego, they are essentially concrete walls formed by polystyrene blocks and easy DIY Foremost Building Expert in Australia,assisting with building problems/disputes, building stage inspections,pre-contract review advice for peace of mind 200 blogs http://www.buildingexpert.net.au/blog Re: Retaining walls 10Dec 24, 2013 4:28 pm Gabions are another solution (see http://www.anewhouse.com.au/2013/08/ret ... -gabbions/) As the wall is over 1m you will still need an engineer's design. The Harder You Try - the Luckier You Get ! Web site http://www.anewhouse.com.au Informative, Amusing, and Opinionated Blog - Over 600 posts on all aspects of building a new house. Re: Retaining walls 11Dec 30, 2013 8:37 pm Hi all. I have narrowed down the retaining wall to be a masonry or precast construction. It will have some surcharge on it as it will be back filled with sand and there will be a house built about 4 metres from the boundary. It will be about 1800 high. Maybe 25m long and the soil is the coastal aeolian sand or whatever they call beach sand. Has anyone.had one built recently? Does anyone have a rough cost per meter? Cheers in advance. Re: Retaining walls 12Dec 31, 2013 1:03 pm abbeybox was that quote for limestone real limestone or the reconstituted stuff? when we did our ones we found out it was cheaper to go the big blocks as one block was big enough and heavy enough by itself but with the smaller blocked it needed to be a dual layer- triple layer wall. We had to do this when we had brick retaining walls at our last house years ago. started at 4or 5 bricks thick Re: Retaining walls 13Dec 31, 2013 5:23 pm The first quote was for reconstituted limestone blocks. I thought it was 18.50 for 8, but it was for one. A load bearing wall needs to have a pyramid type shape. My understanding is that the first two courses are single skin then it goes 2,3,4,5,6 skins per course the higher you go. That is where the expense is. Using verticore utility bricks with reo bar, steel mesh and a cement foundation will be a lot cheaper. I have found an engineers schedule for building the retaining walls and the different schematics for what height we want and the load on it. But I Just wondered if anyone has done one recently, we are in the rocking ham council. Is it pretty straight forward and cost effective. Re: Retaining walls 14Jan 12, 2014 9:40 am My advise buy the blocks yourself get them delivered, I used remastone probabley cost you about 3-5k. Then I would call Steve on 0404867798 he will prob charge you under 7k. There you go 10k job none of this 35k extortion price rip off. Re: Retaining walls 15Aug 02, 2014 6:52 pm There are 2 Issues here 1. planning approval 2. building approval Supposing you are able to get 1. above there are at least a dozen retaining wall types and There are a lot of factors to consider so you really need professional advice and approvals from a Civil/Structural Engineer and get quotes HTH Designer,Engineer (Civil,Const & Envir),Builder,Concrete & Masonry Contract.Struct Repairs Render your bathroom walls, two opinions versus the one, makes you wonder. 3 6118 The spacing of the studs looks pretty large especially for a load bearing wall. 3 11198 Nope, only on the inside, I've literally has my ears to the brick outside and can't hear anything. I can sort of 'reset' the noise by pressing firmly on the studs. This… 10 12620 |