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I'm looking at building a garden bed at home using retaining wall blocks.

Anyone have suggestions in where the best place / deals can be found?

cheers

Go direct to the manufacturer (Boral are the ones I see normally)

Don't pay full price. Boral retaining wall systems are almost always on sale. I went for the "Lightwall" and it's remained pretty solid for about three years now. Wouldn't recommend over four courses high though...

Browny25 wrote:I'm looking at building a garden bed at home using retaining wall blocks.

Anyone have suggestions in where the best place / deals can be found?

cheers

Browny, I'm at Modbury and I got retaining wall seconds from Bolzon's on Tolley Rd St Agnes.

Alternately, the two places on North East Rd at Holden Hill will have seconds as well. Most of the seconds are fine, just chipped or broken at the back (ie, stuff you'll never see). No one in my family nor friends can tell the bricks are seconds.

cheers for that

How much cheaper we the seconds?

Total length im looking at is 13m, and im looking at going 2 bricks high

I would say go 2 blocks high but then put the cappin on top of it, think it looks better and when ya got ppl round for a bbq, can double as a seat if not enough.

Browny25 wrote:cheers for that

How much cheaper we the seconds?

Total length im looking at is 13m, and im looking at going 2 bricks high

About a third of the cost from memory. They're really just 'salvage' - hence going out VERY cheap. Ring Bolzons or similar and ask before going out there. As I said, I could pick and choose through the throng of bricks for ones that were undamaged at the front and damaged at the back (or damaged in one front corner, but I knew full well I'd use those as ones to cut).

Bolzons were happy for me to spend a couple of hours unloading the pallett searching for them too - even came in to lend a hand at one stage.

I finished up paying about 970 bucks for retaining wall, caps and filling it with rubble and rocks. When I'm home I'll try and upload a photo of it.

nice info thanks

gadj1976 wrote:

Browny25 wrote:cheers for that

How much cheaper we the seconds?

Total length im looking at is 13m, and im looking at going 2 bricks high

About a third of the cost from memory. They're really just 'salvage' - hence going out VERY cheap. Ring Bolzons or similar and ask before going out there. As I said, I could pick and choose through the throng of bricks for ones that were undamaged at the front and damaged at the back (or damaged in one front corner, but I knew full well I'd use those as ones to cut).

Bolzons were happy for me to spend a couple of hours unloading the pallett searching for them too - even came in to lend a hand at one stage.

I finished up paying about 970 bucks for retaining wall, caps and filling it with rubble and rocks. When I'm home I'll try and upload a photo of it.

Lay it on a concrete base in mortar?

Set a string line 50mm higher then the height of the blocks. Make sure its level then lay about a metre of concrete not too wet. Then lay the blocks on top tapping them down to the string line as you go. Make sure they are level from front to back also with a small spirit level very inportant when it comes to laying the caps on at the end. Continue with another meter at a time until finished. I then like to fill my bottom row of blocks with a wetter mix to bond it all in together especially if kids are going to be jumping off them or running into them after the bottom row is done its pretty easy to build it up to what ever height you like if you are going higher then 3-4 blocks i recommend filling the bottom 2 or 3 rows with mortar to ensure strength. Hope this helps you .

Sheik Yerbouti wrote:

gadj1976 wrote:

Browny25 wrote:cheers for that

How much cheaper we the seconds?

Total length im looking at is 13m, and im looking at going 2 bricks high

About a third of the cost from memory. They're really just 'salvage' - hence going out VERY cheap. Ring Bolzons or similar and ask before going out there. As I said, I could pick and choose through the throng of bricks for ones that were undamaged at the front and damaged at the back (or damaged in one front corner, but I knew full well I'd use those as ones to cut).

Bolzons were happy for me to spend a couple of hours unloading the pallett searching for them too - even came in to lend a hand at one stage.

I finished up paying about 970 bucks for retaining wall, caps and filling it with rubble and rocks. When I'm home I'll try and upload a photo of it.

Lay it on a concrete base in mortar?

compacted quarry rubble with a bit of concrete (watered in) was sufficient as I'm not putting heavy weights on it - just those three bricks (the height of the wall).

Should be ok, looks all right.
Do it for a living so I always lay them on re enforced concrete w/ a mortar bedding. If your in the Adelaide clay belt the walling will move when the soil decides to do it's tricks.
btw, just to be a fussy prick you need another cap to mitre that corner.

Sheik Yerbouti wrote:Should be ok, looks all right.
Do it for a living so I always lay them on re enforced concrete w/ a mortar bedding. If your in the Adelaide clay belt the walling will move when the soil decides to do it's tricks.
btw, just to be a fussy prick you need another cap to mitre that corner.

Yeh Sheik you're right, I do need to another cap.... problem was, I was about 3 short. Bolzons only had "x" minus 3, so I had to make do with what I had, and hide the three non conforming ones in the corner (to the left of the picture). **Another instance of not being able to tell that they're seconds!**

I do have clay soil, but underneath was a base of compacted quarry rubble, which I then put compacted quarry rubble on top of so it didn't move. The base would be about 140mm deep at any point of the wall. I normally concrete them in (when I did the front retaining wall) but didn't with this one.