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!