Garden & Terrace Walls

A sloping backyard is space you own and cannot use. Terracing converts it into flat, usable ground, and it is the most common reason people on the hill suburbs call about a retaining wall in the first place.

Several low walls usually beat one tall one

The instinct is to build one wall at the bottom and level everything behind it. It is rarely the better answer.

Wall cost does not scale linearly with height. As a wall gets taller the loads increase sharply, which drives bigger footings, heavier materials, closer post spacings and, past the threshold, engineering and approval. Two walls at half the height are frequently cheaper to build than one at full height, and they usually stay under the height that triggers certification.

Terracing also produces better ground. One tall wall gives a single flat platform and a wall you look at. A series of terraces gives usable levels at different heights, planting space between them, and a yard that reads as designed rather than as a slope with a barrier across it.

The cut and fill balances better too. Material taken from the upper terrace often becomes fill for the lower one, which saves both disposal and imported fill.

Setting the levels around use, not around the slope

The question worth answering before any wall line is drawn is what each level is for. A flat area for a table and chairs needs a different depth to a lawn a child can kick a ball on, which is different again from a planting bed or a shed pad.

Getting that right in advance is the difference between a terraced yard people use and one that turns out to be three strips none of which is quite big enough for anything. It also determines where the steps go, which is worth deciding early because retrofitting access into a finished terrace is disproportionately expensive.

Height does not excuse the drainage

Low walls get built without drainage constantly, on the reasoning that a small wall cannot be under much pressure. Saturated ground behind a low wall is still saturated ground, and low garden walls bulging and washing out are a routine call-out here.

A low wall gets the same treatment as a tall one: drain, free-draining backfill, filter fabric, outlet. It is a small proportion of the cost of a garden wall and it is the difference between a wall and a temporary wall.

Material

Garden walls are where timber sleepers genuinely make sense, and where rock walls can look far better than anything manufactured if there is room for the batter. Concrete sleepers remain the longest-lasting option and are worth it on the lower terrace where replacement would mean dismantling what is above.

Ring 0468 066 055 with a photo taken from side on and a rough idea of the fall across the yard.