Large Retaining Wall Project

[SiteSolutions]

I've seen some good looking walls on here. Anyone care to share a thumb rule for estimating a large wall by the square footage of it? I need to come up with a budget number for a wall that would be 18' tall in the middle and tapered up on the ends. Just the fill dirt would cost me 20 grand on this project so I am guessing a nice wall is gonna run a little more than that.

A couple pics of how it looks right now...

[stuvecorp]

I never go by the square foot as it seems like every wall is different. I'd would break it down and go from there.

[oakhillslandscaping]

as far as design is conserned i would terrace the wall and make it out of two or three medium sized walls. dont price by the square foot but i would get a square foot price from the supplier direct and then calculate the man hours

[Gravel Rat]

I don't know if I would build a hand stacked wall at that height to hold back that much weight. Here we would use boulders and it would be benched twice. Your other option is formed concrete or lock blocks.

I would be pricing out materials then figure out the hours.

[Summit L & D]

That's a huge wall to tackle for a first time wall project. It will need to be engineered before you even attempt bidding it. I would strongly advise you subbing it out. A $60,000 wall is nothing to take lightly or with little experience.

[Gravel Rat]

Poured concrete would be the cheapest it may not look pretty but it could be veneered with stone afterwards. A 12 inch thick wall with the proper tie backs will work. There is lots of residential walls in houses 20 feet tall of concete but not that long.

I can't see using hand laid blocks there is too much labour involved plus a a engineering problem to hold that much weight back.

I would maybe go with a 8 foot wall at the bottom just to lessen the grade on the side of the house.

Or bench the side hill into two levels with a path way and walls or stairs.

Benching it would save the engineering problem and save on the backfill required.

[AWJ Services]

Here you will have to have the wall engineered if it is over 4 foot.

A wall that tall will require a different block than what I use but on most of my walls I use for example an Anchor diamond from Pavestone it will average around 25 dollars a face foot.I actually charge a fee for linear foot of base and then a charge for Face feet of wall but 25 a foot is a good ballpark.

I would do 3 walls myself rather than one 18 foot tall wall.

[wanabe]

GR you are on crack or something! I can show you several concrete walls in my area that are falling over. Using blocks, the wall steps back and will not fall over. They put them up all the time over 50 foot arround here.

[SiteSolutions]

Thanks for the replies. I was thinking total price on this thing would be around 100 grand if they wanted to raise the entire back yard. I had guessed the wall would be upwards of 40 or more. (3500 cu yds of fill would cost me around 20 grand by itself!) I needed a budget number to let them know what they were looking at, so they could tell me whether to make a complete bid or to focus elsewhere... I sure didn't want to waste two days of calling, calculating, measuring, thinking, etc if they don't want to spend in that range.

Option 2 is to get as much back yard as they can for around 20 or 30 grand. I'm still open for ideas on a wall that is maybe over the 4' limit? Perhaps a two-tiered approach with two 4 foot walls? One 6-7' wall would give them a decent sized area; the neighboring house to the right has something we might be able to copy for their price range...

[stuvecorp]

Me personally, I'd go for one wall because I don't like to keep doing the base. You have to have the base totally on the money to go really tall. You would probably have to put a fence on top no matter what. You need engineering on it, what type of soil is it? Regular Versa-Lok would be fine on this wall, it's all geo-grid where you get the holding strength.

How easy of access do you have?


A poured wall is a horrible idea, the segmental wall block can flex.

[Gravel Rat]

I guess you guys don't have strong enough concrete or not much experience with concrete. Every house in the area is all poured concrete like I said some foundation walls are 20 feet tall to account for the slope of the property.

A hand stacked block wall isn't used here much it doesn't have the strength to stand up to the rain. When you get upto 20-24 inches worth of rain during one winter it can have some bad effects.

We also use 1000lb boulders that is more common but at 300-400 dollars for a load it can be expensive. Lock blocks are also used again expensive but at 3000lbs each they can hold back some weight. Its actually the only thing the engineers will aprove here. A few retaining walls around that needed over 100 blocks.

Anything over 4 feet here has to be engineered and anything over 8 feet need a hand rail.

[stuvecorp]

I guess you guys don't have strong enough concrete or not much experience with concrete. Every house in the area is all poured concrete like I said some foundation walls are 20 feet tall to account for the slope of the property.

A hand stacked block wall isn't used here much it doesn't have the strength to stand up to the rain. When you get upto 20-24 inches worth of rain during one winter it can have some bad effects.

We also use 1000lb boulders that is more common but at 300-400 dollars for a load it can be expensive. Lock blocks are also used again expensive but at 3000lbs each they can hold back some weight. Its actually the only thing the engineers will aprove here. A few retaining walls around that needed over 100 blocks.

Anything over 4 feet here has to be engineered and anything over 8 feet need a hand rail.

GR - poured walls are a waste.

[Dountman]

How about a Gabion Wall? Not sure if the area is going to be high visibility or not.

Edit:Just read JPG thread and what do ya know.

[Junior M]

I guess you guys don't have strong enough concrete or not much experience with concrete. Every house in the area is all poured concrete like I said some foundation walls are 20 feet tall to account for the slope of the property.

A hand stacked block wall isn't used here much it doesn't have the strength to stand up to the rain. When you get upto 20-24 inches worth of rain during one winter it can have some bad effects.

We also use 1000lb boulders that is more common but at 300-400 dollars for a load it can be expensive. Lock blocks are also used again expensive but at 3000lbs each they can hold back some weight. Its actually the only thing the engineers will aprove here. A few retaining walls around that needed over 100 blocks.

Anything over 4 feet here has to be engineered and anything over 8 feet need a hand rail.
I'd swear your in a completey different world the way you talk..

[Gravel Rat]

GR - poured walls are a waste.

Concrete is cheap where I live it is cheaper than landscape blocks because landscape blocks have to be trucked 200 miles away. By the time you get them to the jobsite your looking at 400 dollars per skid more or less.

The 3000lb lock blocks they are 100-200 dollars each.