Front Retaining Wall Started

We checked on the block over the last couple of days to see the progress of the retaining walls.

The front wall is going in nicely...Beautiful sandstone blocks, which will match well with the blue/cream colour palette of the house exterior. the eventual slope from the house to the retaining wall in the front yard may not be as dramatic as we thought either, which is good.

The back wall, which is concrete sleepers, is slightly delayed as our retaining guys needed to organise materials.  But definitely making some progress on the front wall.

Brisbane is now experiencing some torrential down pours.  Unsure how this will effect the progress of the retaining walls or the block generally, but will keep updating.  

The Retaining Walls...

After the initial panic and clarification on the issue of the cut, fill and exportation we started all over again with our retaining walls.

We met the representative from the company performing our retaining on site this afternoon to run through the location, height etc of the two retaining walls now that the cut, fill and exportation was completed.  We have two walls:-

1. The first is a a big cement sleeper retaining wall across the back of the block to retain the cut.  This wall is well over 1.2 metres (probably 2 metres at it highest point) and thus needs council approval and engineering certification; and
2. The front is a sandstone block retaining wall, next to the driveway, to retain the fill in the front yard.  This one is less than 1 metre in height and does not require any certification.

Where the plans show a roughly 15 metre curved retaining wall in the back, the cut has basically taken it to the boundaries and is a big square that is now 18 metres across the back and will need sides retained as well.  About 7 metres down on one side, and questionably required on the other side (this we will deal with in due course).

After being quoted roughly $23K for the two walls there has been a blow out already due to the excessive cut across the back of the lot.  The retaining is now about $34K.

So if you are tossing up between a flat block that is a bit more expensive, or a sloping block that might need a bit of flattening and retaining -  factor in at least an extra $30K in your land for the cut, fill, exportation and retaining walls - with a good dash of pain in the ass - before making that decision.  We also need to pay for the engineering certification, about another $1K.  Our land prep is likely to now exceed $50K on top of the price of the land itself - before the slab is even down.

Whilst we are a bit disappointed about this, it does give us more backyard to play with, and since we plan on doing a nice outdoor and pool area, extra space is something we will appreciate down the track.  So we try not to complain too much - just have to grit our teeth and cough up the cash.  Plus, retaining walls and space in a backyard are not things that can be rectified later.  You just have to do it properly from the outset or you will regret it later. Lessons learnt from our previous build!

Also, because the back retaining wall is now bigger and straight (not curved) a different type of sleeper needs to be ordered (a longer one).  So the time frame for completion of the retaining walls has now gone from 1.5/2 weeks to 3 weeks.

Just got to keep on keeping on!

Cut, Fill and Exportation Panic Subsides

We had our onsite meeting with our site supervisor this morning.  After our initial panic that the cut and fill was not done correctly, he has alleviated all our concerns.

He ran us through the prospective pegging of the house.  He reassured us that a larger area is flattened for the pad than required to ensure adequate space for materials, trades, scaffolding, machinery.  The cut for the sunken garage is also deliberately further back into the pad than where it will end up for foundation reasons.  So it seems we will end up with the appropriate space for a backyard and slab behind the garage.

In terms of the front yard, the excess soil that has been put there and flattened is temporary.  This will also provide a space for the scaffolding, trades etc. So our 1 metre retaining wall can go in now, but there will just be a lot of soil piled up high behind it.  Once the house is finished and the scaffolding dismantled, the excess soil will be taken away from the front.  This flat pad will then be tapered off into a slope down to the 1 metre retaining wall as planned.

PHEW! The things you learn in the process of a build! Our last block of land had the cut, fill and retaining done before it was sold to us and was ready to build on.  So these aspects to our current build are very new (and scary) to us.

We are just waiting for the documents to be sent through to us to sign and take possession of the property again so the retaining can be done.  Our retaining guy is very keen to get started and had dropped off machinery and rocks over the weekend to get started asap. So we were very concerned that any error in the cut, fill and exportation would delay our retaining guy, who seems very keen and gung-ho about getting our walls in.

The Cut Has Been Done

Because our block was slightly sloping - low at the front, high at the back - a cut had to be performed in order to ensure a level pad for the slab.  So we arranged, at extra cost, to have Metricon complete the cut and fill as well as export the excess soil.

This was scheduled to be performed on Friday, 16 January 2015.  Afterwards, we would meet our site supervisor onsite to hand possession of the block back over to us so we could get our retaining guys in to do front and rear retaining walls (because again, like the pool and the decking, Metricon 'do not do' retaining).

We are told on Friday that the guys are there doing the cut, fill and exportation as planned. We arrange to meet onsite on Monday, 19 January 2015 to take possession of the property and have the retaining done.  After the cut, fill and exportation is done, we go out to have a look at the job.

There will be a retaining wall going in across the back (under the existing wall) in a curve shape, so this seems OK.  We immediately note that the pad left for the house (specifically the area behind the garage) seems a bit small having regard to the size of the backyard and slab that is scheduled to be put behind it. We stepped it out and there did not seem to be enough room for the backyard and the slab.  I am standing on a lowered platform where our sunken garage will eventually be sitting.

Turn around and next to our driveway area is over 1m of excess soil that has been scrapped off the back of the property, and left on the front...

Take another couple of steps backwards down the driveway...

Take another couple of steps backwards and you get the full effect.  We immediately panicked and thought "what is all of this soil doing here?! "  We envisaged a slope downwards alongside the driveway.  This is where we will be putting in 1 metre retaining wall (which will eventually act as a border for a small garden across the front).

Here you can see my partner standing in front of the mound of dirt.  This area has been approved (on plans, with council etc) for a max 1m retaining wall.  This was purposefully done to avoid a costly engineering certification on the retaining wall, which is required if the retaining wall is over 1.2 metres. The dirt left here is probably over 2 metres.

We called our site supervisor immediately and discussed the apparent issues, noting that the cut/fill/export guys have packed up their equipment.  He had not seen the work, so could not comment at the time but that we would discuss during our Monday onsite meeting.