Retaining walls
Structural retaining walls across Melbourne, built to AS 4678 by a registered building practitioner, with the excavation, drilling and footings done by the same crew that builds the wall.
Most people arrive knowing roughly how much fall they have and very little else. That is the normal starting point. What actually decides the wall is what sits behind it, what is under it, and how much water moves through it, and none of that is visible from the top of the bank.
Under about a metre, with nothing bearing on the ground behind it, a wall generally needs no engineering or permit, and is priced accordingly. Above that, or with a driveway, a structure or a boundary involved, it becomes a structure. It needs a design, it generally needs a building permit, and it needs somebody who can be held to both.
Four wall types cover nearly everything we are called for: engineered retaining walls, concrete and timber sleeper walls, rock and boulder walls, and replacing a wall that has already failed. Each page below sets out what that wall is for, and where it stops being the right answer.
Core services
Concrete retaining walls on steel posts, engineered walls, replacements and rock. Each has its own page, its own specifications and the projects behind it.
Projects
Four recent jobs, each with the constraint on the site and how it was built.
Why us
Anybody can stack a wall. The difference shows up in the part nobody can see once the job is finished.
CDB U 58737. Once a wall needs a building permit, the work has to be carried out by a registered builder. That is what allows the building contract and the Home Warranty cover to sit with the same business that builds the wall, while we liaise with your engineer and building surveyor through the approval.
Site cuts, bulk excavation, drilling and deep footings stay in the business because the structure fails without them. One program, one crew, and the footing and the wall set out to the same drawing.
The Australian standard for earth retaining structures. Where engineering exists we build to it. Where the ground on site does not match the report, that gets raised before anything is poured, not after.
Depth, drainage and compaction decide whether a wall lasts, and all three are invisible by handover. They get photographed as the work goes in and handed over as part of the record.
The process
Send the address, photos, the height and anything that sits above the wall. Plans and engineering if you have them. We assess it before anyone drives out.
Fall, access, ground conditions, services and drainage, looked at on site.
If the wall needs engineering and a building permit we tell you early, refer you to an engineer and building surveyor, and liaise with them through the approval.
Excavation, drilling, footings, posts, panels and drainage by the same crew, built to the approved design and AS 4678.
Backfilled and compacted in layers, the site cleaned up, and the photos of the buried work handed over with the job.
Coverage
We build retaining walls across Melbourne. Most of our work is through the eastern suburbs and the Yarra Valley, out of the yard in Lilydale, and larger engineered and replacement projects are taken further afield. Distance is a program question rather than a capability one.
Questions
Generally, in Victoria, a wall over a metre, or one carrying a driveway, a structure or a boundary load, needs engineering and a building permit. Your building surveyor makes the call. We will tell you early whether yours is likely to, and can refer you to an engineer and building surveyor.
For a structural wall, concrete sleepers on galvanised steel posts last far longer than timber and are what most engineered walls specify. We build timber where it genuinely suits the site, and we will tell you plainly which is the better long term choice.
The address, photos of the area, the approximate height and length, and anything that sits above the wall. If you have plans or engineering, send them and we price the documented works.
Yes, where the job has some scale to it. Long runs of lower walls, terraced levels across a site, and walls that are part of a larger site cut or landscape all suit us. We do not take on short garden walls or edging under about half a metre high. Those are better suited to a landscaper, and we will say so.
If engineering exists we price the documented works. If it does not, we can refer you to an engineer. Either way you get a straight answer the same day, and we will tell you if it is not a job for us.
