Boral Heathstone Retaining Wall

i am planning to have something similar in my backyard:

http://www.boral.com.au/masonry/Bora...RetainingWalls

Total length would be about 16m and height wont be more than 500mm.

i need your advise if it is easy DIY or should i hire someone to do this for me. lawn is already landscaped, but has green wooden sleepers as retaining walls (which we dont realy like) and want to replace with this new one.

How much would i expect to pay to some paver to do this job?

or any Tips if you think its better to DIY for me during coming X-mas break.

would much aprreciate your response.

I've used these quite a bit and I reckon they are one of the better block retaining walls on the market. If you are including steps in the wall (fairly simple and a nice feature) then use the larger cappers.

It is a good DYI job, make sure your footings are prepared as per instructions and everything should go to plan. Main tools are a string line, level, rubber mallet and masonry grade liquid nails.

As a very loose rule the cost of a job is twice the cost of the materials. But that is only a guide I use when figuring stuff out on the fly. If you are willing to pay someone by the hour then it will almost always work out cheaper.

thanks namtrak for your very encouraging response.

i had feeling feeling after reading material provided by Boral, that it could be a descent DIY, but your response made it clear.

i did not think about steps but they would give it sexier look :)

would you mind telling the price you paid for these blocks and cappers, thanks.

Yeh, the step do look good.

Sorry I cant remember the price - it was a trade price. If you find a Boral supplier locally, they will give what is a fairly standard price right across their supplier network. I think it was around $120 per sqm for the bigger block (grand?) and about $20 per lm for the caps. Your looking at around $960 for the blocks and about $320 for the caps. I reckon you could quite easily knock about a 25% off that with a bit of finagling Still need to cost in liquid nails, compacting bed, packing sand


But most of these things are fairly similar, although I did switch from a retaining wall block from a local company which was cheaper but I felt was an inferior product. They don't supply corner clocks for a start which compromised the look.

thanks once again namtrak, found one local reseller from Boral website:

http://www.paveworld.com.au

from website Grande looks nicer, but with your experince which one would you recommend?

i will see them on this weekend to findout prices they are offering here, and may be need to find out someone localy to get it on trade-price.

seem like i need to start preprations well before X-mas break to finish it by end of this year.

The grande look much nicer, I believe. They are a bigger block (and work out cheaper per sqm) I think. It's the nice capping stones which come in a lot more expensive.

In all reality its probably a 2 day job. One day for demolition and footings and one day for laying blocks.

Cheers

I used this product a few times also, most recently a couple of months ago. It's much the same as other brand hollow block walls, such as C & M and a few others.

Take the time with your 1st course and the following ones will be right too, use a stringline for everything and take care with step ups or downs in level. Filling it with screenings will also keep in strong. My only gripe towards these type of retaining walls (all brands) is that they don't have caps in a 2 sided split face for a corner, or step up in level, and the sizes doesnt allow for a straight out 45deg mitred corner.

Here are some pics if interested in seeing the product
http://www.plannedlandscape.com.au/T...3996203-9109/#

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Planned LScape

.........My only gripe towards these type of retaining walls (all brands) is that they don't have caps in a 2 sided split face for a corner.......

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I'm pretty sure Heathstone does include a corner rockface cap.

But you are right though, once you want to get a bit angular you have to break out the brick saw, which is beyond the province of a lot of punters.

Nice website, that you business as well? If I ever move to Melbourne and need a bit labouring work I'll have to keep you in mind boss!!

Quote:

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Originally Posted by namtrak

I'm pretty sure Heathstone does include a corner rockface cap.

But you are right though, once you want to get a bit angular you have to break out the brick saw, which is beyond the province of a lot of punters.

Nice website, that you business as well? If I ever move to Melbourne and need a bit labouring work I'll have to keep you in mind boss!!

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Yeah this time of year is flat out, silly season! Always try to put jobs onto the site to show people previous works rather than the old way of having the big folder full of photos

Speaking of brick saws...the above wall was a bugger for cuts...every cap on the corner had to be cut to match the curve of the wall

btw... mods, not sure on policy of adverts here, was no intention was just providing a pic for the above mentioned wall

for the most part, these type of walls are dead easy to build, just make 110% sure your first course is right, the rest will just about fall into place (watch your fingers)

Last Heathstone wall I did was a mix of curve, straight & steps, 4 courses high (bottom course was near on buried), used 190 x 390 pavers for the step caps.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Planned LScape

Speaking of brick saws...the above wall was a bugger for cuts...every cap on the corner had to be cut to match the curve of the wall

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memory fuzzy here, but for the Edgestone, I think it was, you could get standard, left & right curve blocks, and matching caps, made it a little easier for doing curves :)

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Terrian

memory fuzzy here, but for the Edgestone, I think it was, you could get standard, left & right curve blocks, and matching caps, made it a little easier for doing curves :)

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From memory the curved blocks were out of the range of the gradual curve the wall I did was running, the caps that they provided were for tighter bends.

thanx for all your input. i checked with local reseller on Sydney Road (PaveWorld), they are selling Grande Black for $8.32.

with my latest calculation, total length is 20m, and i will go with 3 course plus capping.

i m pretty sure someone can direct me to place from where they can be sourced cheaper than $8.32

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Planned LScape

From memory the curved blocks were out of the range of the gradual curve the wall I did was running, the caps that they provided were for tighter bends.

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you are probably right, it has been a couple of years since I dealt with them :)

another Question from experts here:

according to Boral installation guide, i need to lay a 100mm dia agricultural drain pipe behind the whole wall.

my question is where this pipe will drain its water? i mean in my case wall would be closed on both ends, so where should i put the ends of that drain pipe? do i need to make hole between stone and pass drain through there or miss a stone on both ends of my wall and take drain pipe out of that???

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mirz

my question is where this pipe will drain its water?

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In most cases you would run the ag pipe under the wall, from the lowest point to a drain point in the yard.
If you don't have a stormwater in the yard then......your stuffed! (well, not really)
What you are trying to avoid here is having your garden bed act like a pool and retain any water and then have the wall fall over.