We just noticed this retaining wall buckling and have been quoted $15-$20k to tear down and redo about 50 ft of the wall. It’s only a few feet across that looks pretty bad.
Based on Google Maps it looks like it’s been like this for a few years, maybe gotten a bit worse this year.
Seems like worst case the wall falls and part of our yard is sloped until we get it fixed but maybe I’m just in denial.
Is there any advantage to dealing with it now or should we just wait for it to fall naturally?
Anything we can do in the meantime to mitigate the damage? TIA!
by jerseyjuniper
4 Comments
It’s not going to make much of a difference labor-wise to wait until it falls, but that wall has me clenching my teeth. The shrub up top needs to go, it definitely contributed to the stress on top of moisture retention, as well as straight up age. These are expensive, I’d say 15k is a great price for a wall this tall for a removal and rebuild. Stones look nice enough they could reuse material. Take the opportunity to make a new planting situation up top.
In short, yeah the wall is donezo and it’s definitely an expensive rebuild. It’s so prominent, I would not go with the quote that cuts any corners
It’s bad. And when I say ‘bad,’ I mean Michael Jackson bad….You know how he looked really, really bad at the end of his life?”
waiting to fail naturally could yield some consequences that are not clear at this moment. it might be ok. but you could see erosion that deposits down by your foundation, destabilization of areas up hill including plantings, etc.
also it will probably fail when you have a big party planned
I would get a level and measure it. Then measure it next year. And the year after. It may well have been like this for 20 years.
If it falls the only risk is if someone’s nearby, and obviously some landscaping damage. I assume there’s no utilities right there.