Retaining Wall Quotes - Advice

[Robk]

Last weekend I dug into the garden which slopes down towards the house to make a larger patio area for my son to play on. The earth removed was light soil and then dense clay. I am now looking at putting a retaining wall in around the patio area. Wall will be built from brick (Yellow brick to match house circa 1960s) will be double thickness and will incorporate a step up to the lawn. The length of the wall will be approx 5 metres to retain the earth and approx 1metre high from the footings. I have so far had one quote for £1200, based on digging footings and building wall, including step.. Does this sound reasonable. I have no experience of brick laying costs so just interested in a second opinion. Any feedback would be great. Thanks

[WorAl]

yes, I would certainly say that that is reasonable, I would work on about £80-£100 per square meter, just for the brickwork, then around £15 per hour on labour for doing the groundwork and concreting, high amounts due to the size of the wall you see (if it had been a house the rates would be lower).

ETA will take 2 men 2 days to do the work, I would have charged approx £1k so an extra £200 isnt ripping you off (especially where you are based).

Edited by WorAl on Thursday 27th August 09:24

[Robk]

WorAl thanks for the reply, was expecting around the 1k mark. Getting a second quote in Saturday just to compare. Cheers

[Busamav]

consider using concrete blocks for the unseen side of the wall with the facing bricks to the fore , all tied together with wall ties ,

and also a little bit of peashingle backfill with weep holes in the wall .

[B17NNS]

I speak from very bitter experience.

To raise the level of your ground by any more than 300mm you require planning permission.

[Busamav]

B17NNS said:

I speak from very bitter experience.

To raise the level of your ground by any more than 300mm you require planning permission.

I think the OP is actaully digging in to the slope of an existing profile so should be fine with his proposal .

[eps]

Busamav said:

consider using concrete blocks for the unseen side of the wall with the facing bricks to the fore , all tied together with wall ties ,

and also a little bit of peashingle backfill with weep holes in the wall .

Indeed do NOT forget / ignore the importance of weep holes!

[eps]

Ask them to tell you how long it will take.. or tell us if you've neglected to mention it in the OP.

How deep are the footings going and what will they be?

Ideally some sort of structural calc should be performed to ensure that the wall is going to do what you want/need it to do..

[WorAl]

eps said:

Ask them to tell you how long it will take.. or tell us if you've neglected to mention it in the OP.

How deep are the footings going and what will they be?

Ideally some sort of structural calc should be performed to ensure that the wall is going to do what you want/need it to do..

Structural Cals for a garden wall?? YES it will be ok. Footings need to be about 6-8 inches (based on the clay bottom) and it doesn't matter how long it takes if they have given him a fixed price, but as was said earlier, shouldnt really be more than 2 days (unless you hit bad weather)

[eps]

WorAl said:

eps said:

Ask them to tell you how long it will take.. or tell us if you've neglected to mention it in the OP.

How deep are the footings going and what will they be?

Ideally some sort of structural calc should be performed to ensure that the wall is going to do what you want/need it to do..

Structural Cals for a garden wall?? YES it will be ok. Footings need to be about 6-8 inches (based on the clay bottom) and it doesn't matter how long it takes if they have given him a fixed price, but as was said earlier, shouldnt really be more than 2 days (unless you hit bad weather)

Chap, it might seem overkill but it is a retaining wall, not just a garden wall, HTH.

[WorAl]

eps said:

Chap, it might seem overkill but it is a retaining wall, not just a garden wall, HTH.

I know its a retaining wall but its going to be double skin brick or block and brick, which is going to be holding back max 1m of soil (not freshly laid soil either, soil which has been there since [i presume] the house was built).

[eps]

Go on then, tell me how deep the foundations should be...

I wouldn't assume anything.

[Robk]

The quote was based on 3 days work weather pemitting and a footing depth of up to 12 inch's. The Lawn/garden which has been dug away is dense clay untouched for over 50 years at least i think. even without the wall i could never imagine any of the earth moving ! Weep holes will be incorporated into the wall.