2022 Retaining Wall Costs and Tips

[@Slim-C]

Thanks for sharing your experiences. I have a retaining wall project in the near future and learned a lot from your video

[@NATForIslandLiving]

I'm glad I could help. All the best with your project.

[@TbirdThunderHD]

Thanks for posting. Sorry for your troubles.

[@wintermistique3399]

What a nightmare! I live in Georgia too and didn't have any of these issues. My guy had a good crew and his own machinery. If you have anything else you need done you should look him up. His name is Enrique and his company is Monroy Landscaping Services. So sorry you dealt with this.

[@NATForIslandLiving]

Thanks so much. I will look him up if I have any other projects.

[@dexterbarsh7685]

How much gravel did you finally use and cost?

[@NATForIslandLiving]

My husband finished the job. We used about 5 truck loads of gravel in total-5 x 8 yards. We found a place that sold and delivered for $500 for a truck load.

[@Waspytcu]

No, the bobcat cost as well as all the other additional costs are owned by you.

[@NATForIslandLiving]

Yes. I paid for those cost. The problem is that I paid double because the men underestimated the amount of material needed to complete the job. So, they told me to order x amounts then ran out midweek and had to stop working. Meanwhile I rented the equipment for aw week and had to pay for them to sit on the property unused while we waited to order more materials. This happened about 2 times. They told me to rent the machines for a week each time, and had to stop midway because they didn't have enough material.

[@chuchainzzz2062]

Cheap labor is not skilled Skilled labor is not cheap

[@NATForIslandLiving]

You are soooo right about that. Except to me $40,000 is not cheap. But I guess comparatively for this kind of job it is on the lower end of the price scale.

[@samueljimenez6289]

Did you also hire an engineer for this project, and did the contractor install geogrid? Did he have the proper equipment, workman's comp, and general liability? I think that's why they did it on the cheap because either ignorant and don't know how to build a wall properly or they don't have and don't care for their reputation, never established a proper relationship with their clients, and just run off with the money and also leaving a horrible experience.

[@NATForIslandLiving]

You are right. You should see the wall now. Whenever it rains the soil seeps through between the blocks and stream down the front of the wall. The gray blocks look red. I don't think they put enough gravel behind the wall and they didn't use the soil fabric.

[@samueljimenez6264]

@@NATForIslandLiving They should of excavated farther behind the wall there should be at least 12 inches of 3/4 inch gravel behind the wall , water should be freely weeping through it. It could be that the wall is suffering from hydro static pressure could possibly blow I would highly advice to stay way from the wall as much as possible and get it fixed right a way from a local professional if it’s that severe. You local professional should also tell you about Geo grid and the installation process, Geo grid is a high strength mesh, that retains native soils that go behind a retaining wall. Rule of thumb Geo grid goes back as based on wall height. .That means for example if a wall is 3ft tall the mesh has to go back 3 ft tall. Your former contractor didn’t even install this mesh when he should of. As for the fabric, it sometimes fabric gets clogged due to the clay soils release silt. Honestly a retaining wall doesn’t need fabric, more gravel is the way to go.

[@NATForIslandLiving]

@@samueljimenez6264 I think you are right. He didn't use any geo grid. He said that since the walls aren't over 4 feet, he didn't need to. What I can say for sure is that we got robbed big time. He didn't even put on the wall caps and my husband had to do that himself. I will try to do an update video to show people what became of our over. $30,000 wall. The Gonzalez Brothers were the ones who did ours. Very poor job.

[@NATForIslandLiving]

100% correct. I agree with you. My loss. Lesson learnt.

[@Pilinchi1]

@@NATForIslandLivingit sucks that they took advantage of you. As far as I know, Geo Grid is for wall between 3 feet to 4 feet or higher depending on the steepness. I think in this case it appear like they should have used it. I highly recommend adding grass over the flat areas to minimize the dirt from washing off through the blocks.