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After purchasing my house and cutting back the vegetation at the back I was greeted by a couple of retaining walls with a significant lean and very poor structure - one 1.2m high and one (only 30cm infront/below) 0.6m high (7.5m wide). This is a retaining wall holding the garden of the house behind (somehow). It appears to have no drainage, no aggregate behind (purely), and appears to be bedded on soil.
I've attached photos. I'm very new to this so was wondering if you could help.
The low (brick) wall extends to the other properties, leaning in 1 neighbours' garden.
My plan is to take down both walls and rebuild, potentially using gabions as a low-cost option, done properly with proper foundations, drainage pipe behind, gravel behind for drainage etc.
The questions I have are as follows...
- How would we keep the earth behind at bay to avoid the garden behind (neighbours' at back) collapsing in a soily heap?
- Would it be better to terrace with 2 walls (adequate space apart) or is it OK with just 1 wall (this would be preferable in terms of space in the small garden).
- The garden is raised from ground level to get the terraced garden effect (next doors' is much lower down) - if rebuilding the wall, is it OK to build off the level it's on, or would we need to strip back the entire garden to check the foundations??
- This being said, would it be necessary to get a structural engineer in?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!
I've attached photos. I'm very new to this so was wondering if you could help.
The low (brick) wall extends to the other properties, leaning in 1 neighbours' garden.
My plan is to take down both walls and rebuild, potentially using gabions as a low-cost option, done properly with proper foundations, drainage pipe behind, gravel behind for drainage etc.
The questions I have are as follows...
- How would we keep the earth behind at bay to avoid the garden behind (neighbours' at back) collapsing in a soily heap?
- Would it be better to terrace with 2 walls (adequate space apart) or is it OK with just 1 wall (this would be preferable in terms of space in the small garden).
- The garden is raised from ground level to get the terraced garden effect (next doors' is much lower down) - if rebuilding the wall, is it OK to build off the level it's on, or would we need to strip back the entire garden to check the foundations??
- This being said, would it be necessary to get a structural engineer in?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated.
Thank you!