Green Banks – Residential Retaining Wall

Green Banks – Residential Retaining Wall

In 2017, property developer S.J. Finn visited the UK Construction Week show at the NEC, Birmingham. They had recently acquired a plot of land on the outskirts of the village of Ware, which had an existing timber framed bungalow. Plans were draw up for the demolition of the existing property and for a new 5-bedroom dwelling to be constructed in its place. Due to height restrictions imposed by the planners, the land would need to be excavated to create a single story, semi-subterranean house.

Before visiting the Construction Expo, several methods/products for constructing the residential retaining wall had been researched. These included - timber crib walling, concrete block-work and stone filled gabion baskets. None of these options were ideal for this project and would require additional/specialist trades, this would result in increased costs and affect the construction programme. After visiting our stand and discussing the project with our team and our precast retaining wall products, the modular retaining wall system appeared to be the most appropriate.

We used these products

The project required 138m of retaining wall to be constructed around the site. Using the 2m long precast units, a total of 68no units were installed, with wall heights ranging from 500mm to 1750mm. In addition to the standard straight sections, some units would require sloping tops to follow the gradient of the sloping ground. Internal and external corners would need to be formed and modified wall lengths to align the walls with the buildings.

In addition to the supply of the precast elements, we also provided foundation details and construction drawings to aid the project engineer and architect with their design.

Modular Retaining Walls

The modular retaining walls, have the most comprehensive range of wall sizes available in the UK; heights range from 500mm to 6m and lengths of 1m to 6m. They also have exceptional concrete strength and finish.

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Advantages of Precast

The key benefits of using the modular precast retaining wall system for this project include:

Simplified Foundations – Precast wall units are installed onto compacted Type1 base and sand/cement blinding layer; no poured concrete required.

Sloping Top Walls – bespoke units were cast with sloped tops to enable wall to follow the gradient of the land; no concrete cutting onsite.

Corner Sections – internal 90 degree corners available as standard, external and non-standard angles can also be formed with this system.

Quality Concrete – Self compacting concrete mix and chamfered edges for contemporary look and architectural finish.

Cost Saving – Using prefabricated wall units manufactured off-site result in fast installation without the need for specialist plant or equipment. No additional wall cladding or coatings required, walls are suitable for direct paint application.

Low maintenance – Products have a design life of 50 years as standard. C60/75 concrete mix with good exposure classes ensure the walls will last in the harshest environments.

The client was delighted with the precast units and is planning to use these or a similar precast system on their next project; we are looking forward to working with S.J. Finn again.

If you would like to know more about our modular retaining walls and other precast retaining walls which are suitable for residential projects, you can read our Residential Precast Concrete Retaining Wall article.