# Forum Home Renovation Retaining Walls  cheapest temporary retaining wall

## whiteknightoz

The builder has advised me that I need to errect a retaining wall prior to the cut and fill to retain the fill soil and then one after the cut and fill to retain the cut soil if you get my drift.  the is becuse the house is only 1.5m from the boundry and they cant geet the required fall to comply with OH&S.
When my neighbours end up building they will need to cut and fill as well and at this point in time there will be no need for the retaining walls so I am wondewring what woudl be the easiest and cheapest way of retaining the boundry for the builder.

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## Master Splinter

Generally, sleepers are the cheapest way to build retaining walls.  You can use untreated ones if it's temporary.  Uprights should be embedded a minimum of 600mm.  No need to bolt together - just shoot a few nails through at an angle to hold the sleepers against the uprights until the fill is dumped behind.

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## stevoh741

> Generally, sleepers are the cheapest way to build retaining walls. You can use untreated ones if it's temporary. Uprights should be embedded a minimum of 600mm. No need to bolt together - just shoot a few nails through at an angle to hold the sleepers against the uprights until the fill is dumped behind.

  generally you want to embed the posts same distance in the ground as out. if yuo only go to 600 deep and say the wall is 1m high then it will fail (as in lean forward) if it is backfilled with a bobcat.

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## stevoh741

Not sure if there is such thing as a temporary retaining wall but if it was me I would try pick up some cheap link retaining wall blocks up off ebay or similar. Once the first course is down then very quick to install. Also if you plan to pull it up later you can re-sell the blocks. Might even turn a profit on ebay.......

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## SuperTradie

I would suggest timber sleepers would be the cheapest. However if your wall is going to be over 1m you do require engineering and approval, your builder should be able to advise you on this. If it is under 1m make sure the uprights go into the ground at least the same amount as is above the ground. I know you said your house is only 1.5m from the boundry but enquire if you can get away with battering the bank of the cut as a temporary measure. If so this will save you building a retaining wall.

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## stevoh741

> I would suggest timber sleepers would be the cheapest. However if your wall is going to be over 1m you do require engineering and approval, your builder should be able to advise you on this. If it is under 1m make sure the uprights go into the ground at least the same amount as is above the ground. I know you said your house is only 1.5m from the boundry but enquire if you can get away with battering the bank of the cut as a temporary measure. If so this will save you building a retaining wall.

  I agree thet sleepers would be cheaper but as a temporary wall IMHO it would be far easier to pull up and resell link blocks than used sleepers (good luck getting the posts back out of the ground in 1 piece)

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## whiteknightoz

thanks for teh replys guys..  I like the idea of the blocks but have never been able to find the "cheap" ones..  Sleepers might be the go I think. 
I got permission from the neighbours to batter the slope over the boundary onto their block but the builder still wont approve this as he saiys there is nothing stopping them from renegging on this after the fact.  tru I suppose  :Frown:

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