Kind of what I'm thinking. They've said they're insured but I don't have a certificate yet. I won't be paying any up front. I guess my thought is, if they start the work and don't finish, I'll at least be a bit further than I am now. I had intended on doing it myself over a few weeks, but I just don't have the time.
They are going to add the appropriate drainage (gravel backfill and some piping to divert water to the sides of the wall) which appears the be the reason for the failure. Previous installer just included ~1 ft of river rock at the bottom of the wall.
$2500? To do this properly they’re going to have ~$1000 in aggregate, fabric, pipe and deliveries. Hell the roll of fabric they need is ~$300 by itself. I’d be very wary of the price. If it seems too good to be true it probably is.
That's what I'm thinking. I'm not even in the business but if someone told me they're going to do this job for $2500 even without knowing the actual work that goes into it I would be wary.
Correct. The pipe will cost about $70 depending on current market price for 100’ of perforated corrugated pipe. The broken wall looks to be 4’ tall and ~15 foot long. Proper backfill is ~ 5-8 yards of #8 limestone. Which at current market rate is $190-300. Plus another $120 for delivery. So on the low end you’re at $400. Plus your $300 roll of 6 ounce filter fabric. Plus I’m assuming a machine or a bunch of guys with shovels to excavate properly behind the wall. Plus the labor and the haul dump fee to get rid of the 5-8 yards of soil that’s excavated. Plus the labor to stack the wall back up. I do this for a living. I wouldn’t touch this job for less than $5k and realistically not at all because all of the walls need torn down and reassembled properly and Op already said he didn’t want to spend $10k to tear all this down and do it properly. it could easily be 4-5x that for a total redo.
Also do this for a living and totally agree with everything you stated. I probably wouldn’t want to do this tho without ripping it all out and starting over. This is a bandaid fix on a failing installation.
Forgot to mention the obvious access issues. Probably $2500 surcharge right there just because it looks like a massive pain in the ass to get anything in or out of there
If you look closely there is actual brick drain tile installed below the wall that totally failed. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entirety of the drain system is blocked\collapsed. Assuming you can get one into the backyard, a reasonable sized mini excavator and a skid steer would get most of the work done, you’d just have to ramp up to the terraced level you need to. But yea access would probably be kind of a pain initially.
If he does it right and you have the money give him 3500 and tell him to never sell himself short again. OP already said it didn’t matter if he finished or not. 2500 is a deal of a lifetime. But like you said id be wary.
Dude. Drainage is NOT the reason for failure here AT ALL. Or at least let me say not the sole or even primary reason. These paver stones are more “edging” than “retaining.” That wall was way too high to be built by some random college kids with pavers.
Yeah, these look like the cheap basic "max height 2ft" blocks from lowes or home depot and someone built multiple 4-5ft walls with them with no drainage.
Yup everything I've seen about these pavers is that they should not be used like they have been here. But I've got 4 of these walls built the same way. They would've been built decades ago so I'm stuck with them for now.
Unless it’s a professional engineer that’s diagnosing the reason for failure, you have no guarantee that the design is going to last for even a year. Additionally, you may be taking on liability risk in case of collapse. I would recommend getting a design done by a professional engineer so at least when corners are cut you know how far off from “ideal” you are.
It’s so cheap I’m suspicious. My parents had a similar wall redone (maybe a bit more complex) and it’s was originally quoted at $8k but then about $11k after they had to do a few more things.
i would be more cautious... if they start something that messes the wall/terrain up more or somehow makes it harder or more costly to fix later, you'll be wishing they never touched it... ask me how i know LOL
Do NOT let them give you a copy of their insurance papers or anything like that.. Their actual insurance company should reach out to you via email, fax, or something. If they try to just show you instead of giving you a name and number of the company to call or have them reach out, then it is B.S.
Trust me, people try to get away with that all the time. By the time the customer figures out that they are not actually insurred, it's too late. And their house has a 100-foot tree laying in the middle of the roof or something.
>Do NOT let them give you a copy of their insurance papers or anything like that.. Their actual insurance company should reach out to you via email, fax, or something.
Whoa what!
I’ve never had a contractor’s insurance company reach out to me before a job starts. I had no idea.
Like how does that work? Can you elaborate? Are there certain circumstances?
Do they get insurance just for the job?
Yep. I send certificates of insurance to clients all the time. I call our insurance company, their lovely front office staff sends it directly from the insurance company to the client. Eliminates or cuts down on fraud and fake insurance. You should not ever be getting proof of insurance from anyone other than the insurance company itself. And you should definitely look up the contractor’s licensing from the Building Department website or call them to confirm its standing and validity.
Thank you so much!
Is there such a thing as a job too small to request an insurance certificate?
Also, if I’m not mistaken, isn’t the customer charged a fee to get an insurance “certificate”?
No, there’s really not. Even if the job doesn’t require a contractor/specialist license (my husband is a woodworker, which doesn’t require a license), they still need to be insured as an LLC etc.
My insurance company doesn’t charge the customer for a proof of business/liability insurance, but I’ll double check.
You do it online. For any customer that requests proof of insurance, I send a request online to my insurer and they email it to the customer. It’s like being sent on letterhead. There’s different levels too. For a big job (35k or something), my insurer would actually contact them directly. I could request this on smaller jobs but it’s just never been necessary.
Reached out to ask for a copy of his insurance cert to verify it myself and he said 9k for the job. And then back to 2.5k when I said no thanks. Probably would've been a shakedown if he had showed up. He's a very large man from downtown Chicago and part of me is worried he's going to show up tomorrow anyways.
Call your local police first thing before he arrives and explain the situation (not that they'll do anything other than get a report on file), and 911 if you see him AT ALL.
If you do see him, after calling 911 tell him to leave and that you already have that report on file. Make yourself a thorny pain in the ass.
BTW he's not gonna show up.
Second to this retaining walls need structural engineering and you need to insure that the wall will not fail within a given time or erosion. It may need need to assistance of plants and retention netting. In fact 2500 might be too cheap.
That's what I'm worried about. Assuming they're just digging out some of the dirt and rebuilding with all of the blocks already up there, does 2-3 days seem reasonable? He has a team of 4-5 guys I believe. It's a relatively small job compared to some of their typical work he has said.
At this point, I can't afford a 10k+ price tag just to rebuild a wall with all of the pieces already here. I'm thinking I'll just take the chance with them and settle for a mostly decent job.
I would bet my savings that they are not experienced with this work. $2500 is nothing for this amount of work. I'd guess they'll do a very poor job. Of course there is a chance that you found a 1 in a million chance of someone who does good work for pennies
$20 an hour gets you trash monkies and tool fetchers, not masons.
I hope im not being dense and you were pointing out that this job is horribly underbid by complete amateurs/cons.
In another comment you said “they don’t have an insurance certificate yet,” and now here “this is a small job compared to their typical work.” Something ain’t adding up…I wouldn’t touch this wall for less than $20k, because of the risk of inheriting your problem. Let’s say I fix it, and do a poor job, and the wall collapses again, but causes more damage (I.e. causes a bigger part of the wall to collapse, or causes lower parts of the wall to collapse, or collapses into hour house, or results in a substantial mudslide, etc.), and then I get sued. WAY too much risk and liability. Anyone offering to do this for $2,500 is not legit
Just to clarify, OP said he doesn't have a certificate from them in hand yet, not that they don't have one. Of course, one could assume that if he doesn't have one in hand that they don't have one...but still.
My bad I misread that. Something else to consider that I didn’t include in my original response is that this wall appears to be at least nine blocks high directly adjacent to the part that failed (meaning it will also need to be rebuilt), and assuming these blocks are 6” tall (which is standard), this wall is 4.5’ tall. In most municipalities walls over 4’ require engineering and additional permitting. And I’m fairly certain this blocks are not designed to be stacked to that height (at least without geofabric which appears to be absent). Additionally, many municipalities have steep slopes like this categorized as Environmentally Critical Areas (or some equivalent) that are a nightmare to work on with inspections, design review, and permitting. I say this because all of these factors increase the cost of these walls and working in these areas by A LOT, making the original quote even more red flaggy
The numbers don’t really add up… $2,500 / 3 days / 5 guys / 8 hour days = $21/hr. Is he giving you his labor at cost?
It’s also a lot of work by hand. Not sure if a team that size can finish this in 3 days.
Right? I'm not an expert at all, and I know I live in a HCOL area, but that seems like a LOT of work. And demoing something while preserving the components usually takes more work and time.
Best case scenario ask them to share what they’re smoking and at the end of the day and you probably won’t even remember which wall was rebuilt and which wasn’t….
Does it feel too good to be true? If you answered yes then find someone else. If you answered no then. Find someone else to do because that is way to low and I would worry about the quality of the work and repair stabilization.
I'm not sure if it's too good to be true. He estimated 2.5 days of work for his guys and all the materials (aside from some gravel) are already here and provided by me. My other option is to do the work myself, but I think regardless of price, they are going to do a better job than I can. The wall has lasted 30+ years with improper drainage, so I'm thinking a rebuild at the same height with the same blocks should hold up decently well.
Yeah, fuck it. That would be like an entire summer of weekend warrior-ing for me. Could just be an owner keeping his guys working between big jobs. Roll the dice.
Do the math yourself and see if its too good to be true. You said the guy had a crew of 4-5 guys, 2.5 days of work with 4 guys is 80 man hours. That means he is charging you roughly 30$ per man hour if he is not buying any material. You said they were going to add in gravel and drainage so that could easily be 500$ even if they are skimping on it. So when you factor that in you are paying them really just 25$ an hour.
If they are a reputable company this type of laborer is making at least 20$ an hour. So when you add it all up this means the company is going to profit what? 400$ bucks on a job like this. You think 400$ is going to cover all his overhead, tools, paying himself as the boss?
This is too good to be true, there are only two options here. You are going to get the worst quality job ever or you are going to be taking advantage of someone who is an idiot. Neither one of those is desirable.
I was planning on doing it for free myself. If I had a team of 4-5 guys to help, I think I would. I'm not too picky about the quality of the work, I just need a wall back up there
UPDATE: I asked him to send me a copy of his insurance certificate (which I planned on verifying myself). He sent it to me and then said 9k is now the price. Not surprising based on the feedback I've received here. Thank you all for your input. I'm definitely not going with him and will continue to ask for quotes.
You've got to dig, restack sure, but you also have to address the failure, which is probably water.
They'll have to add drainage and backfill with more aggregate at the very least.
I worked for a guy disassembling and rebuilding chimneys 30 years ago, and that's about what he charged way back then to do a similar job on a much smaller structure while hanging off of scaffolding 50ft in the air.
I guess I'm not sure what the worst case scenario is here if I do let them touch it. I don't plan on paying up front and I'd be perfectly happy if they just rebuild it exactly as it was before it fell. It lasted a few decades before it fell so I'm thinking even a cheap job will last another decade. I guess I'd only be worried they would somehow destroy another wall but I don't know how that'd even be possible...
Nah you’re thinking about it the wrong way. It’s not how much can you get away with for $2,500. The question is: “is the $2,500 on top of having to pay for it to be done right once it fails”.
That needs drainage and the bracing behind the walls. Once the soil shifts like that it’s going to keep doing it until it’s shored up the right way.
I guess my thought is that if I can get a couple years before it collapses again for $2500 then I'll be happy. I just truly can't afford 10x that right now. They will be added gravel and some PVC for drainage during the repair at least.
Listen man, none of this matters, we're too invested and need a part 2. So what you need is a video cam for a time lapse so we can watch the part 2 in action.
It's too late to say no, we need our entertainment, the wall is secondary.
If you’re good with a wall that may last 20 years or may last 4 years than I say you go for it.
Everyone who is saying “do it right” is correct - there is a right way and that will cost 4-10x that much. But if the worst case scenario is it failing again and causing no damage and your understand that going in - then it’s no problem.
Also understand that many here are landscaping COMPANIES who have a financial interest in making you think this is cheap and you can’t do it yourself ever. Not a direct financial interest but generally speaking they spend their careers convincing homeowners that this stuff costs this much and they have no other options.
And you know what - I’m happy for them. Go get your bag gentleman. But I’ll keep DIYing my own shit and helping others who can’t afford to drop $50k.
I’d buy a shit ton of rock though for them and have it delivered. I live in Chicagoland and there are a few good rock companies who will deliver for cheap. Have them dig out at least 3-4 feet back - maybe even help them do that and put the dirt onsite or offer a bit more money to have them take away.
I can see taking this job for $2500 and paying a few people to help to get it done in 2 1/2 days. Thousand bucks a day. I would plan on supplying materials at that cost.
It looks to be a repair of 10-15 ft section of wall at most. With wall blocks already in place. Might be a little difficult to get gravel up there. 2-3 people will be able to get that done in 2 days. I've helped build similar walls with no gravel for footing or backfill in family homes, and they are all still standing 10-15ish years old now. The one wall I did on my backyard hill has backfill and drainage, though. I've built all those walls by hand no mechanized equipment. I'd say it's a reasonable price for a repair.
Good news super cheap.
Now here is my Debbie downer- it seems none is questioning why it failed. The bad news is for 4’ high, there is a reason it collapsed. Rebuilding in the same manner will very likely result in failure again.
A different system should be put in. Like pre engineered allan block with batter 3 degrees or 6 degrees and a lip to keep from sliding with cores filled and drainage medium behind wall. That without knowing if existing soil has high clay content which sheets into geo grid tie backs. Where I live permit would be needed.
So may be more if you plan on living there long term.
You got a lot of wall so tough call.
Honestly. Yeah building it right would probably cost 10k.
But you can rebuild it for 2,500.
So the question is how long will one rebuild last? Multiple that by 4. You could pick up an illegal immigrant at any inner city Home Depot around 6am at the Pro Desk loading area and have them build it 4 times before you meet the cost of “doing it right”
Sometimes doing it good enough is fine
This is my exact way of thinking. A larger company quoted me 30k minimum and said they wouldn't rebuild it using the same blocks because it is incorrect. They would need to bring boulders in.
I'm not looking for a perfect solution to last me a lifetime. A band aid is all I need at this point.
Oh crazy lol well you know my true identity then neighbor! Let me know if you know any good landscapers or hardscapers in the area hah because this dude just switched his bid to 9k and tried to shake me down a bit
I do custom homes and fiberglass pools. I use Webster property maintenance out of Crystal lake for all my patios and excavation. Give them a call. Great people honest and fair. $2500 is cheap for a proper job but they will give you an honest price and they show up. My wife grew up in Picnic Grove. Let me know if you want me to DM you their number or just look them up
No way can they do that job for that price. We would charge more than that to take it down. And getting a certificate of insurance is a matter of a phone call. They call their company and the company can email it directly to you.
Get more quotes. Either they don't know what they're doing or they are super shady
I'm not sure what the huge cost would be here aside from labor. Paver base gravel and backfill gravel right? I have existing river rock in there they can use for backfill as well. I'm not even necessarily trying to have them improve upon the design of the previous wall. It lasted many many years as-is (even though it's too tall and not draining correctly).
I'm thinking of this as a band-aid for now given I have 4 more identical walls and I would want to replace them all together down the road if need be. I'm aware it won't be perfect, but this is a tiny (in size and cost) cottage home and I can't swing 10s of thousands of dollars to rebuild all these walls correctly. It's a tough situation to be in!
Seem cheap to me, looks like there is soil right behind the bricks and this is problem with the retaining wall. Soil has massive load and when it gets wet, boom there goes your wall. In order to have a retaining that will last you need for how high your wall is you need that much stone behind it. Example, 4ft wall you need to remove 4 feet of soil behind it into the hill and add stone back in.
Every one thinks they have a good deal will they find out their contractor has no idea what they are doing.
ALWAYS get 3 quotes, for any job of any kind, minimum. It’s the only way to be sure you are getting “a good deal” vs “Cheap”
If it’s just blocks then it’s fair. You’d think they make at least $30 an hr for maybe 16-20 hrs 2-3days of work. But if they are making $25 or less that’s fair possibly for the contractor. Usually there is insurance and other fees thats why $2500 seams low. If you get more reinforcement in that part of the hill do it as well so it won’t come back with erosion.
There's a lot more work, than simply restocking these blocks which looks like a really crappy system to begin with. There are better systems out there, but they will cost you all the money, far more than $2,500 to redo this layout or something similar. But then again you get what you pay for
Honestly, the whole system is ill-conceived. The walls are way too close to one another for how tall they are. This adds lots of load to the lower walls and is for sure a large reason this wall failed. That wall is over 4' tall and will need engineering to make it not fall over again. Nobody worth their salt is going to rebuild this to code for less than $7,000. And that is probably low. The site access appears to be 100% stairs which makes using machinery almost impossible. I'm guessing this wall didn't have any geo-grid, drainage substrate or drainage pipe either (that I can see). This will also need to be added to bring it up to code. So basically, no. This price is way too low for an acceptable solution.
Hmm. 🤔 as described as hand built project, that’s labor intensive. I would get multiple bids and pepper each person with questions. You’ll learn a lot that way and be able to make a more informed decision on the scope of the project as well as the experience and knowledge of the project lead. Good luck.
yaaaa im a landscaper that does a lot of stonework. I would charge maybe 6x that to rebuild everything properly with drainage etc. I would be extremely wary of the quote. Im pretty sure buddy is gonna destroy what you currently have and give up about 1/8th of the way through installing an absolute garbage product.
Uh…. [Diamond brick retaining wall infoz](https://www.belgard.com/products/retaining-walls/diamond-pro/) You’ve got a gravity wall that’s way the heck more than 4’ high. You need to support the brick with rebar. And there’s a thing about laying engineering grid in the dirt to anchor the wall to it for additional support every 4’. Drainage isn’t what caused it to fail.
I’m not nearly an expert, but you need Tiebacks, or Geogrid anchoring those courses above 5’, You need proper drainage, and design.. it looks like this was a hack job from the onset.
$2k aint going to get remotely close to fixing this ‘right’.
My concern here is that the terraces look to be pretty steep. It might need some engineering to make sure it doesn’t fall down in the future.
If it were me I’d get other quotes.
“I can’t afford the $10,000 repair”, well.. then get a shovel. It’s a ton of work. $2500 won’t cover the overhead. I would charge $2500 just for the stairs
If they visit properly, yeah that's a steal. I highly doubt they will fix it correctly that is clear stone backfill that will need to be installed along with geogrid and drain tile. I can guarantee you they're not going to fix it correctly for $2,500
I don’t think you need to consider it much to realize that’s a good deal. When you’re saving with salvaged materials you often have extra labor cost, that goes hand in hand, but $2,500 isn’t much in added labor cost at all. That’s a steal really.
Edit: as I think more, it’s probably too good. Definitely pay most of it on completion. I wouldn’t care about a permit if it’s not an addition and just a restoration as long as they’re quick. Any fine would be worth it and it’s not like someone from the city is going to come and tell you to “put it all back how it was”.
I hate to say it but unless structurally something is done different it will just fail again. You’ll be having a retaining wall failing 5 years down the line if you don’t structurally address that now. Personally I think this is extremely low and you’ll likely have the contractor abandon the job halfway through.
If the drainage weren't an issue it looks pretty straightforward, no? You said OP that you were thinking of doing it yourself but don't have the time which leads me to think that there isn't a lot of engineering in the existing walls either.
Like, if this were a wall on flat ground $2500 seems to me expensive considering all the block are already there. Is the engineering worth double that? Maybe. I find it hard to tell from the pictures. It IS a hell of a steep hill to retain without considering the mass wasting issues and soil types etc.. .... yet on the other hand, it's just a wall.
Yeah, I'm surprised so many others are saying it's not possible for anyone to do the job for that price. I have 4 of these identical walls that have stood for decades, I'm not trying to do anything aside from rebuild this one for now to prevent a mudslide. I know the blocks probably aren't correct for this height of wall, but I'm not going to rebuild all my other walls either. I'd be happy if they just leveled the base and rebuilt exactly as-is with no changes. The addition of some better drainage is just a bonus in my mind.
It’s very cheap. So cheap it’s almost guaranteed they are very new to the business side of things or don’t know what they are doing with walls.
These blocks aren’t rated for walls this tall but could be made structurally sound with the correct reinforcement placement and gravel. Your guys aren’t gonna know how to do that.
If they provide good references, and/or have good online ratings, and offer a decent guarantee to back up their work, then it’s a great deal. If they don’t have all that to offer, then it’s only an okay deal. Will a bunch of workers be trampling through the rest of your yard? Will they be tossing out plants, requiring you to buy new plants? Take all that into consideration. It’s minimal, but will likely.
Just my two cents but is that supposed to be a retaining wall? To the best of my knowledge you would want interlocking blocks, not just regular cinder blocks. You may be able to strengthen cinder blocks by reinforcing them with rebar driven through the holes and a poured bond beam at the top, but most retaining walls use interlocking bricks (think lego) - at least all the good ones I've seen do. I am not a landscaper this is not landscape advice - but I feel like over time the earth behind those blocks will settle and compact and water will seep down into it and it will try to push out sideways, leaving you with the same situation seen here. Bricks stacked on top of other bricks and even mortar is only strong vertically - not horizontally. If it were my property, I would want at very least, some sort of bracing to prevent the bricks from getting pushed over. At a glance that wall looks like it was constructed similar to how one would lay bricks outside the frame of a house; above ground, where one side is open air and the other is a framed house, and there is no chance of significant force from either direction.
You should honestly determine why the previous wall failed and put in appropriate corrections. This involves better drainage through rock or sand and geo-grid fabric to tie the wall into the hillside.
Good deal if you want it to look the same way in a year or two at best. You have no geo grid in that wall and no drainage. When you have multiple tiers like that, you want it built right.
Don't rush into anything. Always ask for a written quote. If they're hesitant to provide one, it's likely because they don't want any trace of an agreement, making it difficult to take them to VCAT or similar if something goes wrong.
I had someone quote me cheaply for a retaining wall. Paid cash, and it half-collapsed within two weeks. He kept making excuses—rain, feeling unwell, other work, etc. What was supposed to be a three-day job took four weeks. I lost lot of money. I paid cash and there was no trace of a quote or invoice.
If you have family and kids using this area regularly, don't take risks. I ended up hiring a professional with a good reputation and reviews. He followed the proper procedures, got the retaining wall designed and approved by the council, and then built it. It cost me three times more, but I'm happy with the outcome and have peace of mind knowing the structure won't collapse.
Don't be like old me! ;)
Don't you normally run some landscape fabric every couple of courses? It gives the blocks a base that is retained by the fabric and dirt on the layer above. Also helps prevent washout. Every 2-3 layers I would fill cores with grout.
Having just built my own retaining wall over the last three months, I’m highly skeptical that this could be done properly for that price unless they really underbid it or are hurting for work. Removal of existing block, excavating back, new base material leveled and compacted, adding drainage, backfilling at least 2 or so feet behind the wall with clean 3/4” and compacting in lifts, adding any Geo-grid, etc. . . . Just a huge job to do by hand, AND going uphill.
They might be able to make it look good, but I highly doubt it will be built to last.
Absolutely not. It is way too cheap. Don’t even consider letting someone start that project for 2500. Do the math- how long would it take one person to do this job, even a very skilled mason still has to contend with walking up and down and moving heavy objects, lugging tools up and down, plus the normal labor of building the wall. A normal deck tear down can cost half of that, if removal and disposal of debris is included. It costs $500 to remove a hot tub and have it disposed. How possibly can this person justify charging you so little? This will turn into a nightmare. It’s gonna take 4 laborers a week at least to do all that, that’s $625 a pop to do it, or one guy many weeks etc. You know it’s way too cheap. Don’t send it
For building a retaining wall properly, $2500 is not even close to appropriate. I would think $10,000 minimum to do it right. Probably much more. If they're quoting $2500, they don't know what they're doing, and you should expect it to fall over again in a few years.
$2500 is far too cheap. Something isn't adding up here, to me. I'm just a homeowner not a professional, but this smells like a $10k+ type of job if done properly. I would be wary.
Super deal, better check their insurance, don't pay up front, might just start and then leave you a mess.
Kind of what I'm thinking. They've said they're insured but I don't have a certificate yet. I won't be paying any up front. I guess my thought is, if they start the work and don't finish, I'll at least be a bit further than I am now. I had intended on doing it myself over a few weeks, but I just don't have the time.
Are they going to address the reasons for failure?
They are going to add the appropriate drainage (gravel backfill and some piping to divert water to the sides of the wall) which appears the be the reason for the failure. Previous installer just included ~1 ft of river rock at the bottom of the wall.
$2500? To do this properly they’re going to have ~$1000 in aggregate, fabric, pipe and deliveries. Hell the roll of fabric they need is ~$300 by itself. I’d be very wary of the price. If it seems too good to be true it probably is.
That's what I'm thinking. I'm not even in the business but if someone told me they're going to do this job for $2500 even without knowing the actual work that goes into it I would be wary.
I too am not in the business but I'd estimate it would cost me 2500 to do it myself!
dont forget the 10 trips to home depot to buy stuff you keep forgetting lol
you can use some plastic bendable pipe... you dont need that much to make it drain
Correct. The pipe will cost about $70 depending on current market price for 100’ of perforated corrugated pipe. The broken wall looks to be 4’ tall and ~15 foot long. Proper backfill is ~ 5-8 yards of #8 limestone. Which at current market rate is $190-300. Plus another $120 for delivery. So on the low end you’re at $400. Plus your $300 roll of 6 ounce filter fabric. Plus I’m assuming a machine or a bunch of guys with shovels to excavate properly behind the wall. Plus the labor and the haul dump fee to get rid of the 5-8 yards of soil that’s excavated. Plus the labor to stack the wall back up. I do this for a living. I wouldn’t touch this job for less than $5k and realistically not at all because all of the walls need torn down and reassembled properly and Op already said he didn’t want to spend $10k to tear all this down and do it properly. it could easily be 4-5x that for a total redo.
Also do this for a living and totally agree with everything you stated. I probably wouldn’t want to do this tho without ripping it all out and starting over. This is a bandaid fix on a failing installation.
Forgot to mention the obvious access issues. Probably $2500 surcharge right there just because it looks like a massive pain in the ass to get anything in or out of there
If you look closely there is actual brick drain tile installed below the wall that totally failed. I wouldn’t be surprised if the entirety of the drain system is blocked\collapsed. Assuming you can get one into the backyard, a reasonable sized mini excavator and a skid steer would get most of the work done, you’d just have to ramp up to the terraced level you need to. But yea access would probably be kind of a pain initially.
If he does it right and you have the money give him 3500 and tell him to never sell himself short again. OP already said it didn’t matter if he finished or not. 2500 is a deal of a lifetime. But like you said id be wary.
Then that seems like a really good deal to me. Hopefully they follow through!
Dude. Drainage is NOT the reason for failure here AT ALL. Or at least let me say not the sole or even primary reason. These paver stones are more “edging” than “retaining.” That wall was way too high to be built by some random college kids with pavers.
Yeah, these look like the cheap basic "max height 2ft" blocks from lowes or home depot and someone built multiple 4-5ft walls with them with no drainage.
no drainage and a layer of visqueen to to direct all the water to the wall too . . :)
Yup everything I've seen about these pavers is that they should not be used like they have been here. But I've got 4 of these walls built the same way. They would've been built decades ago so I'm stuck with them for now.
Unless it’s a professional engineer that’s diagnosing the reason for failure, you have no guarantee that the design is going to last for even a year. Additionally, you may be taking on liability risk in case of collapse. I would recommend getting a design done by a professional engineer so at least when corners are cut you know how far off from “ideal” you are.
It’s so cheap I’m suspicious. My parents had a similar wall redone (maybe a bit more complex) and it’s was originally quoted at $8k but then about $11k after they had to do a few more things.
i would be more cautious... if they start something that messes the wall/terrain up more or somehow makes it harder or more costly to fix later, you'll be wishing they never touched it... ask me how i know LOL
what state is this?
Disrepair
They fell right into that one
So did the wall
Do NOT let them give you a copy of their insurance papers or anything like that.. Their actual insurance company should reach out to you via email, fax, or something. If they try to just show you instead of giving you a name and number of the company to call or have them reach out, then it is B.S. Trust me, people try to get away with that all the time. By the time the customer figures out that they are not actually insurred, it's too late. And their house has a 100-foot tree laying in the middle of the roof or something.
>Do NOT let them give you a copy of their insurance papers or anything like that.. Their actual insurance company should reach out to you via email, fax, or something. Whoa what! I’ve never had a contractor’s insurance company reach out to me before a job starts. I had no idea. Like how does that work? Can you elaborate? Are there certain circumstances? Do they get insurance just for the job?
Yep. I send certificates of insurance to clients all the time. I call our insurance company, their lovely front office staff sends it directly from the insurance company to the client. Eliminates or cuts down on fraud and fake insurance. You should not ever be getting proof of insurance from anyone other than the insurance company itself. And you should definitely look up the contractor’s licensing from the Building Department website or call them to confirm its standing and validity.
Thank you so much! Is there such a thing as a job too small to request an insurance certificate? Also, if I’m not mistaken, isn’t the customer charged a fee to get an insurance “certificate”?
No, there’s really not. Even if the job doesn’t require a contractor/specialist license (my husband is a woodworker, which doesn’t require a license), they still need to be insured as an LLC etc. My insurance company doesn’t charge the customer for a proof of business/liability insurance, but I’ll double check.
You do it online. For any customer that requests proof of insurance, I send a request online to my insurer and they email it to the customer. It’s like being sent on letterhead. There’s different levels too. For a big job (35k or something), my insurer would actually contact them directly. I could request this on smaller jobs but it’s just never been necessary.
Reached out to ask for a copy of his insurance cert to verify it myself and he said 9k for the job. And then back to 2.5k when I said no thanks. Probably would've been a shakedown if he had showed up. He's a very large man from downtown Chicago and part of me is worried he's going to show up tomorrow anyways.
Call your local police first thing before he arrives and explain the situation (not that they'll do anything other than get a report on file), and 911 if you see him AT ALL. If you do see him, after calling 911 tell him to leave and that you already have that report on file. Make yourself a thorny pain in the ass. BTW he's not gonna show up.
Never was, except to collect the deposit.
Even if they started and stopped half way, still a great deal
Are you sure you’re not missing a zero? 25k is fair, this is bargain basement pricing.
Second to this retaining walls need structural engineering and you need to insure that the wall will not fail within a given time or erosion. It may need need to assistance of plants and retention netting. In fact 2500 might be too cheap.
I'd almost say that's too cheap. That's a lot of work
That's what I'm worried about. Assuming they're just digging out some of the dirt and rebuilding with all of the blocks already up there, does 2-3 days seem reasonable? He has a team of 4-5 guys I believe. It's a relatively small job compared to some of their typical work he has said. At this point, I can't afford a 10k+ price tag just to rebuild a wall with all of the pieces already here. I'm thinking I'll just take the chance with them and settle for a mostly decent job.
I would bet my savings that they are not experienced with this work. $2500 is nothing for this amount of work. I'd guess they'll do a very poor job. Of course there is a chance that you found a 1 in a million chance of someone who does good work for pennies
5 guys, 3 days, 8 hours days. That’s 120 hours. $20 an hour for a full experiences crew is about 1/5 the price you should expect.
$20 an hour gets you trash monkies and tool fetchers, not masons. I hope im not being dense and you were pointing out that this job is horribly underbid by complete amateurs/cons.
I’ll be your trash monkey AND tool fetcher for $20 an hour.
In another comment you said “they don’t have an insurance certificate yet,” and now here “this is a small job compared to their typical work.” Something ain’t adding up…I wouldn’t touch this wall for less than $20k, because of the risk of inheriting your problem. Let’s say I fix it, and do a poor job, and the wall collapses again, but causes more damage (I.e. causes a bigger part of the wall to collapse, or causes lower parts of the wall to collapse, or collapses into hour house, or results in a substantial mudslide, etc.), and then I get sued. WAY too much risk and liability. Anyone offering to do this for $2,500 is not legit
Just to clarify, OP said he doesn't have a certificate from them in hand yet, not that they don't have one. Of course, one could assume that if he doesn't have one in hand that they don't have one...but still.
My bad I misread that. Something else to consider that I didn’t include in my original response is that this wall appears to be at least nine blocks high directly adjacent to the part that failed (meaning it will also need to be rebuilt), and assuming these blocks are 6” tall (which is standard), this wall is 4.5’ tall. In most municipalities walls over 4’ require engineering and additional permitting. And I’m fairly certain this blocks are not designed to be stacked to that height (at least without geofabric which appears to be absent). Additionally, many municipalities have steep slopes like this categorized as Environmentally Critical Areas (or some equivalent) that are a nightmare to work on with inspections, design review, and permitting. I say this because all of these factors increase the cost of these walls and working in these areas by A LOT, making the original quote even more red flaggy
I mean 5 guys for 3 days at 25$ an hour is already costing him 500$ more than the quote.
The numbers don’t really add up… $2,500 / 3 days / 5 guys / 8 hour days = $21/hr. Is he giving you his labor at cost? It’s also a lot of work by hand. Not sure if a team that size can finish this in 3 days.
Too cheap lol
Right? I'm not an expert at all, and I know I live in a HCOL area, but that seems like a LOT of work. And demoing something while preserving the components usually takes more work and time.
It's such a cheap price that it will most certainly be done wrong
They will ask for the money in advance and nothing will get done.
Best case scenario ask them to share what they’re smoking and at the end of the day and you probably won’t even remember which wall was rebuilt and which wasn’t….
Lol well if I can't tell which wall was rebuilt than I'll be happy. If I can get 5 years out of it I'll be happy
Better hope you don't have a major rainstorm before then, and I feel for the next sucker, er, owner...
Does it feel too good to be true? If you answered yes then find someone else. If you answered no then. Find someone else to do because that is way to low and I would worry about the quality of the work and repair stabilization.
I'm not sure if it's too good to be true. He estimated 2.5 days of work for his guys and all the materials (aside from some gravel) are already here and provided by me. My other option is to do the work myself, but I think regardless of price, they are going to do a better job than I can. The wall has lasted 30+ years with improper drainage, so I'm thinking a rebuild at the same height with the same blocks should hold up decently well.
Just pay it and see what happens IMO. (This is not professional landscaping or financial advice, but I love saving money where I can.)
Yeah, fuck it. That would be like an entire summer of weekend warrior-ing for me. Could just be an owner keeping his guys working between big jobs. Roll the dice.
Do the math yourself and see if its too good to be true. You said the guy had a crew of 4-5 guys, 2.5 days of work with 4 guys is 80 man hours. That means he is charging you roughly 30$ per man hour if he is not buying any material. You said they were going to add in gravel and drainage so that could easily be 500$ even if they are skimping on it. So when you factor that in you are paying them really just 25$ an hour. If they are a reputable company this type of laborer is making at least 20$ an hour. So when you add it all up this means the company is going to profit what? 400$ bucks on a job like this. You think 400$ is going to cover all his overhead, tools, paying himself as the boss? This is too good to be true, there are only two options here. You are going to get the worst quality job ever or you are going to be taking advantage of someone who is an idiot. Neither one of those is desirable.
Would you do it for that price?
I was planning on doing it for free myself. If I had a team of 4-5 guys to help, I think I would. I'm not too picky about the quality of the work, I just need a wall back up there
I think that price sounds really good. As long as you’ve seen their previous work and it’s not total garbage, would jump on that.
UPDATE: I asked him to send me a copy of his insurance certificate (which I planned on verifying myself). He sent it to me and then said 9k is now the price. Not surprising based on the feedback I've received here. Thank you all for your input. I'm definitely not going with him and will continue to ask for quotes.
Would love to now how that convo went; I.e. did he give a reason for the price increase?
Contractor saw this post 😆
Yes good deal.
[удалено]
You've got to dig, restack sure, but you also have to address the failure, which is probably water. They'll have to add drainage and backfill with more aggregate at the very least.
So cheap it sounds like he's gonna run w your deposit...
I worked for a guy disassembling and rebuilding chimneys 30 years ago, and that's about what he charged way back then to do a similar job on a much smaller structure while hanging off of scaffolding 50ft in the air.
If someone offers to do it for that cheap, don’t let them touch it.
I guess I'm not sure what the worst case scenario is here if I do let them touch it. I don't plan on paying up front and I'd be perfectly happy if they just rebuild it exactly as it was before it fell. It lasted a few decades before it fell so I'm thinking even a cheap job will last another decade. I guess I'd only be worried they would somehow destroy another wall but I don't know how that'd even be possible...
Nah you’re thinking about it the wrong way. It’s not how much can you get away with for $2,500. The question is: “is the $2,500 on top of having to pay for it to be done right once it fails”. That needs drainage and the bracing behind the walls. Once the soil shifts like that it’s going to keep doing it until it’s shored up the right way.
I guess my thought is that if I can get a couple years before it collapses again for $2500 then I'll be happy. I just truly can't afford 10x that right now. They will be added gravel and some PVC for drainage during the repair at least.
Listen man, none of this matters, we're too invested and need a part 2. So what you need is a video cam for a time lapse so we can watch the part 2 in action. It's too late to say no, we need our entertainment, the wall is secondary.
If you’re good with a wall that may last 20 years or may last 4 years than I say you go for it. Everyone who is saying “do it right” is correct - there is a right way and that will cost 4-10x that much. But if the worst case scenario is it failing again and causing no damage and your understand that going in - then it’s no problem. Also understand that many here are landscaping COMPANIES who have a financial interest in making you think this is cheap and you can’t do it yourself ever. Not a direct financial interest but generally speaking they spend their careers convincing homeowners that this stuff costs this much and they have no other options. And you know what - I’m happy for them. Go get your bag gentleman. But I’ll keep DIYing my own shit and helping others who can’t afford to drop $50k. I’d buy a shit ton of rock though for them and have it delivered. I live in Chicagoland and there are a few good rock companies who will deliver for cheap. Have them dig out at least 3-4 feet back - maybe even help them do that and put the dirt onsite or offer a bit more money to have them take away.
I can see taking this job for $2500 and paying a few people to help to get it done in 2 1/2 days. Thousand bucks a day. I would plan on supplying materials at that cost.
It looks to be a repair of 10-15 ft section of wall at most. With wall blocks already in place. Might be a little difficult to get gravel up there. 2-3 people will be able to get that done in 2 days. I've helped build similar walls with no gravel for footing or backfill in family homes, and they are all still standing 10-15ish years old now. The one wall I did on my backyard hill has backfill and drainage, though. I've built all those walls by hand no mechanized equipment. I'd say it's a reasonable price for a repair.
Just $2500? Good lord. That seems too cheap. Make sure you don't pay upfront.
Seems waaaaaay too cheap, to the point where I would be nervous.
Good news super cheap. Now here is my Debbie downer- it seems none is questioning why it failed. The bad news is for 4’ high, there is a reason it collapsed. Rebuilding in the same manner will very likely result in failure again. A different system should be put in. Like pre engineered allan block with batter 3 degrees or 6 degrees and a lip to keep from sliding with cores filled and drainage medium behind wall. That without knowing if existing soil has high clay content which sheets into geo grid tie backs. Where I live permit would be needed. So may be more if you plan on living there long term. You got a lot of wall so tough call.
Well it collapsed once. What are they doing different to keep it from happening again?
Honestly. Yeah building it right would probably cost 10k. But you can rebuild it for 2,500. So the question is how long will one rebuild last? Multiple that by 4. You could pick up an illegal immigrant at any inner city Home Depot around 6am at the Pro Desk loading area and have them build it 4 times before you meet the cost of “doing it right” Sometimes doing it good enough is fine
This is my exact way of thinking. A larger company quoted me 30k minimum and said they wouldn't rebuild it using the same blocks because it is incorrect. They would need to bring boulders in. I'm not looking for a perfect solution to last me a lifetime. A band aid is all I need at this point.
I'd expect $4000 on the cheap end. $2500 seems way too good to be true.
Well just found my FRG neighbor on Reddit lol I'm from Cary actually and saw you post this on contractor reviews
Oh crazy lol well you know my true identity then neighbor! Let me know if you know any good landscapers or hardscapers in the area hah because this dude just switched his bid to 9k and tried to shake me down a bit
I do custom homes and fiberglass pools. I use Webster property maintenance out of Crystal lake for all my patios and excavation. Give them a call. Great people honest and fair. $2500 is cheap for a proper job but they will give you an honest price and they show up. My wife grew up in Picnic Grove. Let me know if you want me to DM you their number or just look them up
No way can they do that job for that price. We would charge more than that to take it down. And getting a certificate of insurance is a matter of a phone call. They call their company and the company can email it directly to you. Get more quotes. Either they don't know what they're doing or they are super shady
I'm not sure what the huge cost would be here aside from labor. Paver base gravel and backfill gravel right? I have existing river rock in there they can use for backfill as well. I'm not even necessarily trying to have them improve upon the design of the previous wall. It lasted many many years as-is (even though it's too tall and not draining correctly). I'm thinking of this as a band-aid for now given I have 4 more identical walls and I would want to replace them all together down the road if need be. I'm aware it won't be perfect, but this is a tiny (in size and cost) cottage home and I can't swing 10s of thousands of dollars to rebuild all these walls correctly. It's a tough situation to be in!
Yes! Make them lunch’s bring them drinks and beers (after work) help them set up and breakdown that’s a hellava great deal!
Seem cheap to me, looks like there is soil right behind the bricks and this is problem with the retaining wall. Soil has massive load and when it gets wet, boom there goes your wall. In order to have a retaining that will last you need for how high your wall is you need that much stone behind it. Example, 4ft wall you need to remove 4 feet of soil behind it into the hill and add stone back in.
Sounds too good to be true. They going to rip you off or do an absolutely crap job of it.
Too cheap to be good.
I know I would never ever in a million years do it for that
Very good deal.
Have you gotten other quotes?
Every one thinks they have a good deal will they find out their contractor has no idea what they are doing. ALWAYS get 3 quotes, for any job of any kind, minimum. It’s the only way to be sure you are getting “a good deal” vs “Cheap”
I would expect to pay double for that work.
If it’s just blocks then it’s fair. You’d think they make at least $30 an hr for maybe 16-20 hrs 2-3days of work. But if they are making $25 or less that’s fair possibly for the contractor. Usually there is insurance and other fees thats why $2500 seams low. If you get more reinforcement in that part of the hill do it as well so it won’t come back with erosion.
Well where I live can be done with $ 3,000 easily all you have to do is hiring some ‘undocumented immigrants’ they will be immensely grateful to you
That’s outrageously cheap.
There's a lot more work, than simply restocking these blocks which looks like a really crappy system to begin with. There are better systems out there, but they will cost you all the money, far more than $2,500 to redo this layout or something similar. But then again you get what you pay for
My dad is a stone mason and something doesn’t seem right with the price. Respectfully, that should cost way more, even with a deal
I’d pay that price just for the demo.
Honestly, the whole system is ill-conceived. The walls are way too close to one another for how tall they are. This adds lots of load to the lower walls and is for sure a large reason this wall failed. That wall is over 4' tall and will need engineering to make it not fall over again. Nobody worth their salt is going to rebuild this to code for less than $7,000. And that is probably low. The site access appears to be 100% stairs which makes using machinery almost impossible. I'm guessing this wall didn't have any geo-grid, drainage substrate or drainage pipe either (that I can see). This will also need to be added to bring it up to code. So basically, no. This price is way too low for an acceptable solution.
They'll take your money and run. No way $2500.
Hmm. 🤔 as described as hand built project, that’s labor intensive. I would get multiple bids and pepper each person with questions. You’ll learn a lot that way and be able to make a more informed decision on the scope of the project as well as the experience and knowledge of the project lead. Good luck.
There’s no way. Someone is going to regret that bid loln
Ain’t no way in hell that’s $2500 in labor think about it
It is a steal, I feel bad for whoever you had screw over.
Do you have any idea how f’in hard this is going to be? $2500? I think they’re biting off more than they can chew and honestly I doubt they’ll finish.
yaaaa im a landscaper that does a lot of stonework. I would charge maybe 6x that to rebuild everything properly with drainage etc. I would be extremely wary of the quote. Im pretty sure buddy is gonna destroy what you currently have and give up about 1/8th of the way through installing an absolute garbage product.
Don’t pay upfront and it’s a steal. Make sure to provide cold water and even lunch if it works for both parties.
I’m not a pro and don’t know shit about this but I’d take that deal in a sec. The only qualm would be whether the quality would be good.
I live in Seattle, you would get quotes for $25K here. I am in no way joking.
Uh…. [Diamond brick retaining wall infoz](https://www.belgard.com/products/retaining-walls/diamond-pro/) You’ve got a gravity wall that’s way the heck more than 4’ high. You need to support the brick with rebar. And there’s a thing about laying engineering grid in the dirt to anchor the wall to it for additional support every 4’. Drainage isn’t what caused it to fail. I’m not nearly an expert, but you need Tiebacks, or Geogrid anchoring those courses above 5’, You need proper drainage, and design.. it looks like this was a hack job from the onset. $2k aint going to get remotely close to fixing this ‘right’.
Too good of a deal. Do they have references ? What’s their contract like?
My concern here is that the terraces look to be pretty steep. It might need some engineering to make sure it doesn’t fall down in the future. If it were me I’d get other quotes.
Back in my day, we'd get it done with a Benjamin, a 5 dollar Footlong, 24 hours, and a handshake.
That’s and an incredible f’ing deal! Make sure they understand what they are quoting!
“I can’t afford the $10,000 repair”, well.. then get a shovel. It’s a ton of work. $2500 won’t cover the overhead. I would charge $2500 just for the stairs
Fuckin steal
If they visit properly, yeah that's a steal. I highly doubt they will fix it correctly that is clear stone backfill that will need to be installed along with geogrid and drain tile. I can guarantee you they're not going to fix it correctly for $2,500
I don’t think you need to consider it much to realize that’s a good deal. When you’re saving with salvaged materials you often have extra labor cost, that goes hand in hand, but $2,500 isn’t much in added labor cost at all. That’s a steal really. Edit: as I think more, it’s probably too good. Definitely pay most of it on completion. I wouldn’t care about a permit if it’s not an addition and just a restoration as long as they’re quick. Any fine would be worth it and it’s not like someone from the city is going to come and tell you to “put it all back how it was”.
They are definitely going to fuck that up.
It’s easy to build a wall. It’s hard to do it right.
I’d say too good of a deal. 🤨
Way too cheap, no chance I'd trust it without seeing their previous work.
That is a great deal. Makes me think I got ripped off…
Hmmm. That’s suspiciously affordable.
Awesome deal. I’m wondering if they know what they’re doing. Have them walk you through their plans, and double check their credentials
I hate to say it but unless structurally something is done different it will just fail again. You’ll be having a retaining wall failing 5 years down the line if you don’t structurally address that now. Personally I think this is extremely low and you’ll likely have the contractor abandon the job halfway through.
The answer to this question is always get 3 quotes and compare
always pay in thirds front middle done.
If they play Mexican music when they are working you have a great crew at this price.
ABSOLUTELY, if done right yk
Question is what made it collapse. You may want to resolve that before you have a repeat
It is a great deal.
Sounds cheap
Yeah, too good. They obviously have no idea what they are in for.
Too good
Too good to be true deal. Maybe just out hustling (in a good way) definitely get a few references and go see the work.
Very good, get references.
If the drainage weren't an issue it looks pretty straightforward, no? You said OP that you were thinking of doing it yourself but don't have the time which leads me to think that there isn't a lot of engineering in the existing walls either. Like, if this were a wall on flat ground $2500 seems to me expensive considering all the block are already there. Is the engineering worth double that? Maybe. I find it hard to tell from the pictures. It IS a hell of a steep hill to retain without considering the mass wasting issues and soil types etc.. .... yet on the other hand, it's just a wall.
Yeah, I'm surprised so many others are saying it's not possible for anyone to do the job for that price. I have 4 of these identical walls that have stood for decades, I'm not trying to do anything aside from rebuild this one for now to prevent a mudslide. I know the blocks probably aren't correct for this height of wall, but I'm not going to rebuild all my other walls either. I'd be happy if they just leveled the base and rebuilt exactly as-is with no changes. The addition of some better drainage is just a bonus in my mind.
Sounds too good to be true.
I wouldn’t do it for that price.
Way too cheap
Great deal. I would charge you $2500 to haul it all off 😂
I would make sure their license and insured or no Bueno
Suspiciously cheap. Tread carefully and pay attention.
It’s very cheap. So cheap it’s almost guaranteed they are very new to the business side of things or don’t know what they are doing with walls. These blocks aren’t rated for walls this tall but could be made structurally sound with the correct reinforcement placement and gravel. Your guys aren’t gonna know how to do that.
The wall was too high. Should only be 3 ft high
If they provide good references, and/or have good online ratings, and offer a decent guarantee to back up their work, then it’s a great deal. If they don’t have all that to offer, then it’s only an okay deal. Will a bunch of workers be trampling through the rest of your yard? Will they be tossing out plants, requiring you to buy new plants? Take all that into consideration. It’s minimal, but will likely.
That's fair. It should take 2-3 days.
The main red flag to me is the lack of a request for partial payment up front. I always do at least 33 percent, usually half up front.
That’s super cheap for this job.
Just my two cents but is that supposed to be a retaining wall? To the best of my knowledge you would want interlocking blocks, not just regular cinder blocks. You may be able to strengthen cinder blocks by reinforcing them with rebar driven through the holes and a poured bond beam at the top, but most retaining walls use interlocking bricks (think lego) - at least all the good ones I've seen do. I am not a landscaper this is not landscape advice - but I feel like over time the earth behind those blocks will settle and compact and water will seep down into it and it will try to push out sideways, leaving you with the same situation seen here. Bricks stacked on top of other bricks and even mortar is only strong vertically - not horizontally. If it were my property, I would want at very least, some sort of bracing to prevent the bricks from getting pushed over. At a glance that wall looks like it was constructed similar to how one would lay bricks outside the frame of a house; above ground, where one side is open air and the other is a framed house, and there is no chance of significant force from either direction.
Those are Allen blocks, they’re specifically made for large retaining walls.
No way that price is real. If it is, I’d run What did your other 2 quotes come in at? (Assuming you got at least 3 quotes)
Yes. But it could because they don’t know what they’re doing and it’s going to turn out like shit.
That price is too good to be true. There is drainage issues that need to be worked out before it’s restacked.
Get a second quote but $2500 might be fair
You should honestly determine why the previous wall failed and put in appropriate corrections. This involves better drainage through rock or sand and geo-grid fabric to tie the wall into the hillside.
That’s ridiculously low cost! Will not be built properly may that cost
Good deal if you want it to look the same way in a year or two at best. You have no geo grid in that wall and no drainage. When you have multiple tiers like that, you want it built right.
Don't rush into anything. Always ask for a written quote. If they're hesitant to provide one, it's likely because they don't want any trace of an agreement, making it difficult to take them to VCAT or similar if something goes wrong. I had someone quote me cheaply for a retaining wall. Paid cash, and it half-collapsed within two weeks. He kept making excuses—rain, feeling unwell, other work, etc. What was supposed to be a three-day job took four weeks. I lost lot of money. I paid cash and there was no trace of a quote or invoice. If you have family and kids using this area regularly, don't take risks. I ended up hiring a professional with a good reputation and reviews. He followed the proper procedures, got the retaining wall designed and approved by the council, and then built it. It cost me three times more, but I'm happy with the outcome and have peace of mind knowing the structure won't collapse. Don't be like old me! ;)
get everything in writing and a *written finish by date* so they dont try and drag it out. dont pay until they finish 100%.
Too cheap to be true.
Someone is blowing smoke up your butt.
Incredible deal. It’s as if the wall will be in the exact same condition a week after THOSE guys finish the job.
Don't you normally run some landscape fabric every couple of courses? It gives the blocks a base that is retained by the fabric and dirt on the layer above. Also helps prevent washout. Every 2-3 layers I would fill cores with grout.
Having just built my own retaining wall over the last three months, I’m highly skeptical that this could be done properly for that price unless they really underbid it or are hurting for work. Removal of existing block, excavating back, new base material leveled and compacted, adding drainage, backfilling at least 2 or so feet behind the wall with clean 3/4” and compacting in lifts, adding any Geo-grid, etc. . . . Just a huge job to do by hand, AND going uphill. They might be able to make it look good, but I highly doubt it will be built to last.
They’re gonna get it done for you and it’s going to work. That’s all. I’d do it for that price for sure; it won’t be perfect but it’ll be!
VERY good deal.
Too good.
Cheap
Absolutely not. It is way too cheap. Don’t even consider letting someone start that project for 2500. Do the math- how long would it take one person to do this job, even a very skilled mason still has to contend with walking up and down and moving heavy objects, lugging tools up and down, plus the normal labor of building the wall. A normal deck tear down can cost half of that, if removal and disposal of debris is included. It costs $500 to remove a hot tub and have it disposed. How possibly can this person justify charging you so little? This will turn into a nightmare. It’s gonna take 4 laborers a week at least to do all that, that’s $625 a pop to do it, or one guy many weeks etc. You know it’s way too cheap. Don’t send it
Seem too good to be true
If you are not wanting to do it then it's always a good deal.
Too good to be true. I’m not an expert but the wall looks like something that needs to be engineered, not just put back together.
For building a retaining wall properly, $2500 is not even close to appropriate. I would think $10,000 minimum to do it right. Probably much more. If they're quoting $2500, they don't know what they're doing, and you should expect it to fall over again in a few years.
$2500 is far too cheap. Something isn't adding up here, to me. I'm just a homeowner not a professional, but this smells like a $10k+ type of job if done properly. I would be wary.
So you’re putting in levels?
LOL
I paid 5k for a very similar project.
Fuck yes.
That's too good of a deal lol
That’s an engineered wall. Might want to have an engineering firm take a look and see if you need a redesign.
Seems really cheap, be careful.
I was quoted $6K for a much smaller rebuild, so that’s an almost worryingly good price.
I'd tell you'd accept $300 and not a penny more!
There should be a long rebar going down into the ground.
1,500$ by foot?
Throw in another $500 have him fix those rock stairs they look pretty sweet