Scenic Rim Retaining Wall Builders000
Turning a slope into ground you can use, in steps rather than one tall wall.
Terrace

Terraced retaining walls

4.5 Excellent
Based on 16 Google reviews
Terrace

Turning a slope into ground you can use, in steps rather than one tall wall.

  • Flat ground you can actually use
  • Water gets out at every level
  • Up to 1 metre retained per wall
What it is

Turning a slope into ground you can actually stand on. Two or three low walls stepping up a bank usually look better than one tall one, and the water has somewhere to go at every level rather than all of it arriving at the bottom. How close the tiers sit to each other changes whether you need approval, so it's worth checking before you settle on a design.

What decides this job
Why steps

Two or three low walls stepping up a bank usually look better than one tall one, and the water has somewhere to go at every level rather than all of it arriving at the bottom.

How close they sit

A wall closer than 1.5 metres to another wall isn’t exempt from approval, so how close the tiers sit changes whether you need council. Worth checking before you settle on a design.

How high we build

Up to 1 metre retained. Past that it’s a bigger licence class, bigger machines and a crew, which is a different business to the one we’ve chosen to be.

What goes in

450 mm pier holes, galvanised steel posts concreted with 32 MPa concrete from the plant, steel reinforced concrete sleepers, then geofabric, a 100 mm socked ag pipe and 20 mm drainage gravel behind the wall.

Know roughly how long and how high? Brittany can give you a price on the phone.

Reviews
4.5 Excellent
Based on 16 Google reviews

16 people have written about what it was like, and they all write about the same things.

The thing people say to us most is that they can’t believe it’s just the two of us. After that, it’s how fast Jake is, how clean he leaves the site, and the quality of the wall.

Reviews published on Google. Names as the reviewers gave them.

Why people trust us with this

Turning a slope into ground you can use, in steps rather than one tall wall.

Every level drains

Geofabric behind each wall, a 100 mm socked ag pipe and 20 mm recycled drainage gravel. Cheap quotes backfill with dirt, and dirt holds water against the wall.

The spacing is worked out before you commit

How close the tiers sit changes whether you need council, so it's checked at the site visit rather than found out later.

We stop at a metre, and say so early

Over a metre retained is a bigger licence class and a different business. You'll hear that on the phone, not after three quotes.

Footings go to depth

450 mm auger holes, bays between 1.6 and 2.4 metres depending on the wall. No hand digging, no hand mixed concrete, no rapid set.

Two to three days for a normal wall

A big tiered job runs five to ten. Weather, deliveries and rock can move it, and we tell you when they do.

Quoted by the square metre of face

Terracing is priced on what the walls actually hold, so you can compare it line for line with anyone else's.

Walls we've built

Some of the walls we've built, and where they are.

How a wall gets built

Most of the work is finished before a single sleeper is visible.

This is how Jake builds a knock down and rebuild, which is most of what we do. Three of the four stages are hidden the day the job's finished, which is exactly why two quotes can look the same and be thousands apart.

  1. 01

    Old wall out, set out, holes dug

    The old wall comes down and gets disposed of. Then Jake sets out, runs string lines for the heights and lengths, marks every post and drills the holes with a 450 millimetre auger.

    A lot of cheap quotes hand dig, and hand dug holes rarely get to depth or get the footing a wall needs.

  2. 02

    Posts concreted, then left to set

    Galvanised steel posts go in and get concreted with 32 MPa concrete from the plant. Never hand mixed and never rapid set. Then the concrete's left to set before a sleeper goes anywhere near it.

    Bays run 1.6 to 2.4 metres depending on the wall.

  3. 03

    Sleepers in

    Steel reinforced concrete sleepers from a supplier who warrants them for 50 years. Not seconds, not the hardware store sleepers, and not the brands that skimp on the reinforcing bar inside.

    The bar inside the sleeper is the one part of the wall you'll never see, and the part you're actually paying for.

  4. 04

    Drainage behind the wall

    Geofabric behind every wall, a 100 millimetre socked ag pipe, and the space behind the sleepers backfilled with 20 millimetre recycled drainage gravel.

    We use 100 millimetre socked ag pipe, the size engineered walls are drawn with, even on walls that don't need engineering. Cheap quotes backfill with dirt, which holds water against the wall until the pressure pushes it over.

Jake measures it on a Saturday. The price you accept is the price you pay.

The other three
Method

Not answered here? Ring us on 0480 501 886.

What people ask about how it’s built

Every post hole is drilled with a 450 millimetre auger, and the posts are concreted with 32 MPa concrete from the plant. How deep they go depends on the wall and the ground, which Jake works out on site.

What we never do is hand dig, hand mix or use rapid set. That's where a lot of cheap walls go wrong, and none of it shows the day the wall's finished.

Geofabric behind every wall, a 100 millimetre socked ag pipe, and 20 millimetre recycled drainage gravel filling the space behind the sleepers.

We use 100 millimetre socked ag pipe, the size engineered walls are drawn with, even on walls that don't need engineering.

Because a lot of cheap quotes backfill with dirt. Dirt holds water against the back of the wall, and that water pressure is what pushes walls over.

Gravel lets the water drop to the ag pipe and get away. It's one of the cheapest things to skip and one of the most expensive to put right later.

Why walls fail

Yes. The post holes still have to get to depth, so rock means rock breaking, and that adds time and cost.

If you know there's rock, tell Brittany when you ring. It'll be priced into your quote, and once you've accepted it the price is locked.

Because a post that's loaded before its concrete has set can move, and a wall is only as straight as its posts. So the posts get concreted, the concrete's left to set, and the sleepers go in after.

It's part of why a normal wall takes two to three days rather than one.

No. Concrete sleeper retaining walls only.

No turf, no plants, no garden beds, no fencing, no timber, no rock or sandstone walls. We're retaining wall builders, not landscapers, and the quote is the retaining wall.

1100 millimetres. That's the width our 1.7 tonne machine needs to get through.

If there's no way to get it to the wall, we don't take the job. Tighter access can still work, but it adds machine and operator time, and if Jake has to put the sleepers in by hand, that's in the price too.

Next

Tell us about the block

Six short questions, about two minutes. Brittany rings you back, then Jake comes out and measures it. Quotes are locked for 30 days, with no builder variations.

A long timber look concrete sleeper wall with steps, running along a slope

Request a quote

Six short questions, about two minutes. Your details first, so if anything cuts out halfway we can still ring you back.

Step 1 of 6 / You

Your name and number are saved when you press Next, so we can ring you back if you don't finish. Sending this agrees to our privacy policy, including the overseas handling it describes.

*Mandatory field

Speak to us0480 501 886Request a quote