OK so we have a shortage of tradies in this country, but this is getting rediculous..
I have been trying to find a bricky for the last 2 months, to get some work done on a retaining wall at our place in the hills of Perth. I've tried everything from tradequotes.com.au to yellowpages to local paper to word of mouth.... The best I have is one person that was keen but never got back to me and another which is not so keen but coming out to see the job on this weekend anyway. I've rung about 30 people.
The work needed is not a small job and not a huge job, I'd think well worth their time (small jobs I can understand would just be fiddly). I need at least 3 quotes, it's a boundary wall ...
Quite frustrating that what seems to be such a simple service is so hard to find a supplier. Meanwhile our retaining well keeps ever so slowly tilting on a lean
I guess the brickies are flat out building houses and that probably won't change for a while in Perth. Have you thought about a different building material? I've seen some good looking treated pine post retaining walls.
I guess the brickies are flat out building houses and that probably won't change for a while in Perth. Have you thought about a different building material? I've seen some good looking treated pine post retaining walls.
The job I need done is alterations to an existing brick retaining wall, replacing the whole wall is not an option. Also, driving pilons (metal, wood, whatever) into the ground is not really an option because most of the ground is rock.
The engineer's plans call for a series of brick pillars/buttresses to be added along the wall and secured to the existing wall.
If the existing wall is starting to come down Roger, is there an option of building another wall in front of the existing wall, but out of a different material. The space between the walls can then be filled with drainage material.
Just looking at ideas. It's a fairly common practice, and has the advantage of not disturbing the existing boundary line. Which as we all know tends to be a very strong territorial issue at time with neighbours.
have you tried a handyman out of the yellow pages ?
Quite a few round here are brickies/ builders by trade and make there bread and butter out of jobs like yours.
BTW Roger I can well understand the brickies reticence at doing this job. I'm a landscaper by trade (amongst other things ) and that used to be one of my most hated jobs, repairing retaining walls. You never know just what you will find until you pull it apart and that makes it very awkward to quote on. I've lost out a couple of times on those things which is why I never do them now unless it's to do as I've suggested above or I would quote to the hilt.
Roger, if you're up to the task you could attempt the job yourself. There are some excellent cement block DIY solutions which if implemented correctly work very well and will save you money. As an added bonus you may well find the standard of your own work exceeds that of the average tradesman.
Roger, if you're up to the task you could attempt the job yourself. There are some excellent cement block DIY solutions which if implemented correctly work very well and will save you money. As an added bonus you may well find the standard of your own work exceeds that of the average tradesman.
Height of the wall varies from about 40cm to about 1.2m over a length of 30m.
DIY - while I'm learning DIY skills very quickly (only having owned a home for 18 months) I'm not up to the task of this job. Also I'm keen to have a professional do it for legal reasons, seeing as it's a boundary wall. I don't want to be to blame if it falls down in the future.
Thanks for the idea of handyman - have submitted a few more requests for quote online under that category.
I might have to resort to other ideas like a second wall but would really rather not, there's issues with that as compared to just new pillars. There isn't a lot of room along the wall, the house and observatory are only about 1.5m from the wall on average.
Seeing as there's no pulling down of the old wall, simply attaching new pillars, footings and wall segments to the existing wall, I'd hope there aren't many complications or un-knowns. The side (our side) where the pillars will be going is completely exposed/visible, simply requires attaching to the existing wall via holes drilled with steel pegs joining the two sets of bricks (old and new). But hey, I'm no bricky!
FWIW here's a couple of walls I did at home, no great problem. Mine are under 900 tall so all that is required is a compacted roadbase footing and drainage behind. The wall has been there for for two winters now and has not moved an inch. Here is an installation guide to give you an idea of the construction technique.
A wall like this is simple to construct provided you don't deviate from the instructions layed out by the manufacturer.
A neighbour, over the road from me, built a wall from the same blocks. He chose to ignore the manufacturers instructions regarding footings, drainage and reinforcing mesh. He put his wall up in a fraction of the time it took me, and it fell over after the first heavy rain.
Unfortunately you point out something all too frequent. The main pressure concern behind the wall is not the "weight" of the soil it is holding up, but the hydrostatic pressure that builds up during wet weather. Inadequate drainage and insufficient footing/posthole preperations are the leading causes of retaining wall collapse with incorrect material selecting a close third.
I don't know if it applies in Rogers case in WA, but in the council shire I live in (and SE qld generally) you are not permitted to build a retaining wall more than 990mm high (in a domestic situation) without submitting engineering plans to council.
![[1ponders]'s Avatar](../vbiis/customavatars/avatar45_9.gif){kind=avatar}
) and that used to be one of my most hated jobs, repairing retaining walls. You never know just what you will find until you pull it apart and that makes it very awkward to quote on. I've lost out a couple of times on those things which is why I never do them now unless it's to do as I've suggested above or I would quote to the hilt.
