Retaining Wall ideas

Associate
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Hi Guys,

My garden slopes down at the back probably about 4 foot in height and starting from about 10 feet from the current fence line. This means that there is a lot of wasted space in the garden, previous owners had planted confiers that are now massive and the previous owners never really kept them in check so they fill nearly all this space. Although my neighbour behind has always kept them very tidy by the looks of it. Its his side you see in the photos.

If I was just to chop the tree down and keep the current fence it would mean that the top of the fence only just reaches the height of the majority of my garden. So I have been thinking about way of fixing this and my only idea was a retaining wall with a fence on top and then back fill this. I guess this would need to be about 4 foot in height and the length is approx 60 foot.The photos below show how it is at the moment and my mockup.

What would the best way to go about this brick wall, sleepers, those cages filled with rock? Or do you guys have any other ideas that might work?

If you were my neighbour would you have a problem with me doing this. Its their drive you see in the pictures. I haven't spoke with them yet as I have no solid plans.

current.jpg


mockup.jpg


View from my back garden, hopefully this shows the slope and size of hedges. This was just after I moved in and trimmed the hedge back hard.

myback.jpg


Cheers
 
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Tea Drinker
Don
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On your deeds there will be a 't' showing you what boundary is yours. If it's yours you can do what you like with it. If it's theirs they might not want it touched, it looks tidy to me.
 
Associate
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The boundary is mine, if the slope and hedge didnt take up so much of my garden I would would just leave it but its probably 30% of my whole back garden and would add around approx 600 sq feet of usable garden.
 
Associate
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What would you like to do with the extra space? How thick are those bushes? If it's only going to add a few feet along the whole length then I'm not sure it's worth it as you won't actually use the extra few feet of width.

If you don't like the bushes taking up so much of your garden then maybe remove them and keep the fence as the divide between you and your neighbour.

If you want to make use of some of it, you could then build some kind of base over just the bit you want, like decking?
 
Associate
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It would be close to 10 foot added across the whole length maybe more.

It would then be used to move existing shed into bottom corner and then flower beds and potential a pond in the future.

I am still undecided whether I will proceed with this I was more interested in what would be a good way to build the wall itself and the potential costs/complications involved.

Cheers
 
Tea Drinker
Don
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The best would be a small foundation and a garden wall built to the height you want. Ultimately though it'll be a lot of money.

Gabion baskets are nice with a nice stone and nice planting but it's difficult to fix a fence over it.

It's quite tall so it's not going to be cheap in any way or form if you want it to last.
 
Soldato
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A 60ft retaining wall would not be cheap mate.
If it truly needs to retain earth then either a very wide based footing or cantilever base would probably be required and maybe hollow breeze blocks with concrete poured into them.....for 60ft in length? Eek! :eek:
Digging out the conifers and roots could open up one big can of worms.
If you can really get back 10ft in width then maybe it is worth considering, but i think you've got a big job on your hands there for anything less dude.
 
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Cheers guys, I did think it might be an expensive one.

If as you ask Joe and it didn't need to retain earth and I levelled the area behind the boundary to be level with the bottom of the wall would this brings costs down?
 
Soldato
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If it didn't need to retain earth then i guess you could simply dig an adeqate footing, maybe 300mm x 300mm and do a single skin breeze wall?. That would save a lot of time and money probably.
If you do most of the labour yourself like ripping the conifers out, digging the footings and filling with concrete, then pay someone to build the wall it may not cost anywhere near as much.
OR........do what i did :)
I bought 'seconds' (half the price of new) fencing posts and gravel boards, used them as my retaining wall (which works fine) then dressed the boards with decking. In your case you could dress them with whatever you like, even fencing panels, but you'll still have the strength of the gravel board wall inside.
That way you don't need to dig a footing trench, just postholes which saves time. No need for concrete, saving money and more importantly, you should be able to do ALL this yourself, thus saving the cost of bricks and a bricklayers fee.
Bircklaying is a skill, fencing posts and gravel board installation really isn't.
Worth considering?
 
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Thanks Joes that is very helpful. I can do a lot my self and I have a friend with a stump grinder so removing the hedges is not an issue it was the rest of it! Do you happen to have a pic of your wall?

Here a picture from further down my road that inspired me. You can see the wall with fence on the left and mine on further down on the right. I am unsure if their wall retaining not.

neighbour.jpg
 
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Soldato
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I'll try and dig out a pic, although it may not help. My wall was 2ft tall and went 20ft in one direction and about 14ft in another at right angles.
It was basically a retaining wall and then dressed in decking as it surrounded a deck that i built.
Howevef, i'll get some pics for you if it helps.
 
Soldato
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The wall is only four feet high so won't need to be anything like as well built as some are saying as the weight of earth it is holding back simply isn't that big! best bet is to have a chat with a structural engineer should be that expensive and they will tell you what you actually need.

Conifers would go regardless if it was my house I can't stand them and unlike proper hedging plants you can't cut them back really hard and have them regrow nicely at a sensible manageable height.
 
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