# Forum Home Renovation Retaining Walls  Cheapest method of non-visible small retaining wall?

## JDub

Need to build a small retaining wall only about 400 high at its hightest point, 7m long. 
A new raised board walk will butt up against it and you will step straight off the board walk onto the grassed area. 
So therefore the retaining wall will not be visible under the lip of the board walk. Pic attached. 
Cheapest and easiest option? 
Stacked rock?
Bessa blocks? 
BTW I have built a large approx 25m wall in the past using the C+M brick retaining wall products but I dont want to go to that expense this time given you wont be able to see the wall..... 
Cheers
Joel

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## echnidna

sleepers

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## Graham99

Hi there, 
I am building a retaining wall in the back yard to bring the whole back of the section up 0.5m, and as above I have gone for sleepers to do the job. The yard falls from the house to the back fence so I am retaining the three sides. Now it's just a case of digging, cementing , and bolting. 
Graham

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## bitingmidge

A few star pickets and some old super 6 sheets would do it for me. :Shock:   
P

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## woodbe

What about those weldmesh cages the highways use? 
They build a box out of mesh, then fill it with suitable sized rocks, put the lid on. 
Rinse, repeat. It seems like a neat solution, and once they are in, they actually don't look too bad. Maybe it's a bit big for the backyard? 
woodbe.

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## journeyman Mick

> What about those weldmesh cages the highways use? 
> They build a box out of mesh, then fill it with suitable sized rocks, put the lid on. 
> Rinse, repeat. It seems like a neat solution, and once they are in, they actually don't look too bad. Maybe it's a bit big for the backyard? 
> woodbe.

  They're called gabion (sp?) baskets. 
Mick

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## Buzza

Sleepers. 
Use RSJ uprights, or channel back to back, and put your sleepers into these, then back fill. 
Buzza.

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## Pulse

.... find a hilly area, find a nice looking retaining wall, reverse your trailer up, carefully unstack into your trailer and simply restack at your place... 
thats a joke... 
sleepers would be pretty cheap, but I'd try to find some second hand material somewhere ... that would probably be the cheapest 
Cheers
Pulse

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## JDub

> A few star pickets and some old super 6 sheets would do it for me.  
> P

  
Do you think star pickets be adequate to hold a couple of sleepers?  Saves digging more post holes than I have too?

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## tcns

Well I used bessa blocks to bacause I am going to extend my deck out to that area like you are and I don't really want to have to do it again. 
Here are some photos 
Tom

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## bitingmidge

> Do you think star pickets be adequate to hold a couple of sleepers?  Saves digging more post holes than I have too?

  JDub, I was joking (sort of). I have done that sort of thing in the past when I was rough and cheap.  (Now at least I'm expensive.) 
The trouble with sleepers is  that they will rot and you WILL have to replace them. 
I haven't read the whole thread sorry, but simple is good.  At that height why not just batter the ground 1:1 and stabilize it with a slurry of concrete a couple of inches thick?  The concrete isn't structural, it's just there to stop the bank eroding. 
Cheers,
P

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## JDub

Gday Tom, 
Yep looks like you are doing something similar, have you just capped the bessa blocks with Pavers or are they some sort of capper designed for Bessa blocks? 
Midge, 
Yer I was sort of joking as well (well sort of  :Wink: ) I hate digging holes  :Rolleyes:

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## tcns

Jdub, 
Yep you are spot on we used the Boral "Heathstone" capping stones and glued them on to the top of the filled bessa blocks with silastic (translucent roof and gutter silicon). They look fantastic - we have a heathstone retaining wall back further in the yard - we did that so it matches the wall, I have attached another photo I don't have a better shot on me - that wall along the back is finished now and the same stones that I glued to the bessa bricks sit on the top of the heathstone blocks to "cap" them 
Here is the boral link with some better shots http://www.boral.com.au/odg/heathstone.asp?Aud=odg  
Regards
Tom

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## JDub

Yer thanks Tom, 
I used a similar product for my wall out the front (C+M) though. Pics below, (have since finished the fencing etc).  
Didnt think of using the same caps in the backyard, would tie in nicely.... 
Havnt had any experience with brick/bessa laying but I guess theres only one way to learn  :Shock:

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## tcns

neither had I, my Father in Law had and he helped,  
poured a 500x200 footing used some form work to get it level and just measure down from a string line along the whole lenght to get the levels nearly right.  
Let that set over a week or so, then motored the first layer on allowing for a certain amount of motor, then did the second layer, I had layed the bricks out offset from one layer to the next, was a pretty average job but it worked out ok. I then core filled them all with concrete and smoothed off the top as flat as I could.  
After a few weeks to let that all go off, I then glued the capping stones on there  
Worked out pretty well - a cement mixer was a must as well as a ready supply of  :Smilie:  slaves .. oops I mean friends 
Tom

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## JDub

Can I ask what you think it cost you? 
No idea what the price of Bessa blocks are compared to the retaining wall stacked type products....
More money I spend on this, the less I have for my new shed :eek: :mad:

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## tcns

yep sure,  
used 50 "150 series" bessa bricks @ $2.70 each
used 2 "150 series" half bessa bricks @ $1.60 each
5 bags of motor mix @ $6 something each   
I have the concrete calculations at home, from memory I bought 
pre mixed sand/aggregate mix and bags of cement and I just asked for enough for 2 cubic metres from memory (I will check this tonight for you) but I think that was about it - I had other stuff to do as well 
That cost 
2 cubes of concrete blend = $114
20 bags cement @ 20Kg = $110
bling bling heathstone capping stones about 30 @ $4 each  
Total $512.20  
Now remember my wall is two blocks high and runs nearly 12m from memory - not sure if yours is going to be that big - I also backfilled it with 20mm crushed concrete gravel and put ag pipe behind it - I had that stuff so there was no direct cost.  
The thing is I will never have to do it again and I bought this stuff in a big lot of other things, ended up spending $2K from one place so I think I might have got slight better prices. 
Prices vary greatly I found in the landscaping game, for example on the heathstone I found a seconds yard that had pallets of stock and would let me go through them and break the pallets down and re pack them so I could choose the blocks I wanted - and sold them to me @ $5 each off $2 less than retail. Save a good deal of money when you buy 300 of them.  
Tom

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## JDub

Thanks for the detail so far Tom, really do appreciate it  :Biggrin:   
Out of curiosity how much clearance do you have at the lowest point of the deck?  Looks like it gets quite low near the wall......

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## tcns

yeah it does,  
At the lowest it would probably be 200mm from the ground to the bearers
I have will be rebuilding the deck you can see there and when I do that I will be digging that out to improve clearance - I want to put a hip off the house out over the deck so I am just getting organised and gettings some drawings done, the I will remove the portion of the deck and rebuild 
Tom

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## blackash

I have two ideas
1. Get a heap of old tyres and lay the frist line down and then fill with earth then lay the next row on top and fill and so on. One tyre rests on two of the tyres in the row below, like bricks. 
2.Get some old feed bags or some that are miss prints..use the soil on site mix with 10% cerment and wet, just add enouch water that the mix balls together when squeezed in your hand but it shouldn't leave you hand wet.  Fill bags and then fold the end over and pin down with a u shaped piece of wire, then tramp the bag down with a tamper. When the frist row is down lay a stran of barwire then lay the next row.Lay like bicks..This method is good if it is to be coverd as the bags break down in sunlight. If the light will be hitting the bags should be covered with some kind of plaster for protection.
For more detail check this links http://www.calearth.org/
 link.http://www.calearth.org/Emerg_files/...EmergShltr.pdf

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## JDub

Hi, 
Thanks for the replies, 
turns out the wall will actually be about 200mm or so above the level of the deck (so you step up from the deck onto the grassed area), so part of it will be visible after all. 
At this stage I will be using bessa blocks I think and bagging the top (visible) course.... either that or I have about 300 odd bricks lying around so might hire a brickie to use those?   
Excavation is happening on wednesday so I will have a better idea after that.... 
Cheers
Joel

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## Bleedin Thumb

HI Backlash,
I use tyres quite a bit to build steps in kids playgrounds but you can build walls too. stack them up and use fence screws to attach them together. fence screws are tough enought to go through the walls. for steps I back fill and compact with road-base (one tyre layer at a time) to just below the lip then put cement stabilised Decomposed granite on top about 25mm to make the exposed tread look attractive. the trick is to use tyres of all the same thickness say 185's or what ever the diametre doesn't matter as much. :Smilie:

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## JDub

Ok a bit delayed but here are the pics, :Rolleyes:   
Like I said it turned out after doing the levels etc that the top of the wall would actually be higher than the deck and in effect become a step to get onto the grass area, so I scrapped the idea of a cheaper method and went with the same retaining wall system I used in my front yard (had some bricks left over so it didnt hurt the pocket too much, well thats what I told SWMBO :Cool:  ...... 
Progress pics.... :Biggrin:

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## JDub

Another angle:

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## JDub

I should point out this is an extension round the side of the house from the main deck area........ pic below

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## tcns

great work mate - looks fantastic I am sure you are pleased with the results 
Tom

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## JDub

> great work mate - looks fantastic I am sure you are pleased with the results 
> Tom

  Cheers Tom, 
Yep happy with how it all turned out  :Biggrin:   Thanks again for the responses before, helped me make up my mind which way to go  :Cool:   
Joel

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## tcns

> Cheers Tom, 
> Yep happy with how it all turned out   Thanks again for the responses before, helped me make up my mind which way to go   
> Joel

  
Too easy mate, happy to help you out - I know I am very happy with my work and glad I don't have to worry about it rotting  
Tom

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