Protection For Your Landscape
Sick of struggling to push a hand-mower up steep slopes? Tired of water and mud flooding your backyard every time it rains?
You probably need a retaining wall. Talk to our professional Gold Coast landscapers to find out how a retaining wall can make your property better.
How Retaining Walls Work
The simplest way to streamline property maintenance and prevent erosion is to build a retaining wall.
Retaining walls work by supporting soil, which allows your property to have two different ‘levels’ of soil right next to each other.
This means you can transform a slope into two relatively flat spaces of usable land. Not bad, right?
Because retaining walls seem so simple, it’s tempting just to build them yourself. Our advice: don’t. Here’s why we recommend always hiring a professional landscaper.
- Retaining walls aren’t as simple as stacking sleepers behind posts. You’ll also need to calculate things like the soil load and wall angle. Building very small walls yourself is fine, but we don’t recommend building anything much higher than your knee without professional help.
- Drainage is also essential. Without proper drainage, your wall is at greater risk of structural damage.
- If you do something wrong, you’ll find out about it at the worst possible time. A badly built retaining wall won’t just fall down – it’s most likely to collapse under the weight of rainwater or another type of pressure.
Concrete Retaining Walls Gold Coast
Concrete retaining walls are walls made out of concrete blocks, which come in a variety of colours, shapes, and textures suitable for different landscapes.
Often, concrete retaining walls are reinforced with galvanised steel uprights, which helps make themmore stable than other types of retaining walls.
Because of their durability, versatility, and relatively simple construction, the vast majority of walls we build on the Gold Coast are concrete retaining walls.
Concrete Retaining Wall Pros
- Highly durable
- Variety of different colours, shapes, textures, and structures
- Suitable for almost any purpose
Concrete Retaining Wall Cons
- Expensive
- Takes time to prepare and install
- Requires drainage system
- Requires structural reinforcement
Rock Retaining Walls Gold Coast
Rock retaining walls use natural stone in place of bricks. Although this can look more aesthetically pleasing than concrete, sourcing and transporting the necessary materials can be time-consuming and costly.
Rock Retaining Wall Pros
- Highly durable
- Can look extremely nice when natural stone is paired with the right landscape
- May not require drainage system
Rock Retaining Wall Cons
- Very expensive
- Takes time to prepare and install
- If not reinforced with concrete and/or rebars, structural variety may be limited
Timber Retaining Walls
Timber retaining walls are affordable, easy to construct, and, with the right wood, can make a great complement to your garden. The downsides? Timber doesn’t have the lifespan of stone or concrete, and may not have the same load-bearing capabilities.
Timber Retaining Wall Pros
- Relatively cheap
- Can look nice in certain landscapes
- Relatively quick and simple to build and repair
Timber Retaining Wall Cons
- Normally requires drainage
- Can be impacted by rot, termites, and weather damage
- Normally not suitable for walls with heavy loads
Retaining Wall Repairs
Have a retaining wall that’s collapsing, rotting, or in need of some attention? Depending on the materials used and the wall’s overall condition, we can help either repair or replace your property’s retaining walls.
Often, walls that weren’t installed with the correct structural integrity or proper drainage can be a safety risk to you and others – if we think that’s the case with your wall, we’ll let you know so you can think about replacing it.
Otherwise, we’re normally more than happy to provide structural and aesthetic repairs for your retaining walls. Get in touch with us to organise an in-person inspection for your property today.
Retaining Wall FAQs
Treated pine is the cheapest type of retaining wall material. Although pine sleepers can be good for quickly and affordably creating a retaining wall, we don’t recommend that our clients use them.
The most cost-effective way to landscape your property is to build with quality materials. High-quality hardwood, stone, and concrete all last much longer than treated pine, which can be prone to warping, rot, and termites.
According to Brisbane City Council, you don’t need to council approval to build a retaining wall if:
- Your wall is less than one metre high
- Your wall is at least 1.5 metres away from any buildings or other retaining walls
- Your wall doesn’t form part of pool fencing
- Your wall doesn’t have any surcharge loading (essentially, additional weight) on its zone of influence (the wedge of soil behind the retaining wall that impacts its structural integrity)
Things like surcharge loading and zone of influence can be complicated, which is why we always recommend hiring a professional landscaper to install walls higher than your knee.
The cost of putting up a retaining wall really depends on:
- Who you hire to do it
- What materials you use
- The amount of soil removal and engineering work involved
For example, a simple metre-high pine wall might start from around $250 per square metre, while a chest-high wall made with natural stone would cost significantly more.
As the property owner, you’re responsible for maintaining any retaining walls on your land. Retaining walls aren’t classified as fences, so there normally isn’t any joint responsibility about maintaining them. If you’re having a dispute about a wall with a neighbour, you may need to resolve it through QCAT.
Your local government is responsible for granting approvals for retaining walls.
The lifespan of a retaining wall depends on how it’s built, where it’s located, how much strain it’s under, and what materials are used.
Treated timber retaining walls have an average lifespan of 20 to 30 years. After that time, you can expect the wood to become susceptible to rot and termites. In moist environments or areas that experience frequent rainfall, timber walls may last for considerably less time.
Stone and concrete walls, by comparison, can last almost indefinitely if they’re built correctly.
As a Gold Coast concrete edging company, we’re a bit biased … but concrete walls are, in our opinion, the best type of retaining wall.
They last virtually forever, they can be matched to your landscape’s aesthetic, they have excellent load-bearing capabilities, and they’re not extremely expensive or difficult to install.
That said, every property is unique, and another type of wall may be the best solution for you.