I Beam Retaining wall

[oohsam]

Hi guys,
When I bought my house, It came with a 1100meter high retaining wall thats about 3 meters long. It is made from Metal I beams, and the the sleepers are treated pine.
I have never seen these I beams for sale anywhere nor do I know how much they cost. Is anyone able to assist on this question.

Also, Because they are steel, I am thinking that I dont need need to dig as deep holes for them, being steel instead of wood..or am i wrong?

(The wall will be 1meter high)
Regards

[pawnhead]

It came with a 1100meter high retaining wall thats about 3 meters long.

That's a hell of an achievement. You should tell the Guinness book of records, since they reckon the tallest structure is Burj Dubai that just passed the CN tower at about 550 odd metres.

[Sturdee]

Eastern suburbs Sleeper Supplies in Heatherdale Rd Ringwood sells them but I think they are made of aluminium.


Peter.

[namtrak]

Visit a steel merchant, it is a very common way to build retaining walls.

From memory (and I think steel has gone up since) the I-beam is around $33 per metre. And you still need to have a decent hole (600-800) with concrete.

[oohsam]

That's a hell of an achievement. You should tell the Guinness book of records, since they reckon the tallest structure is Burj Dubai that just passed the CN tower at about 550 odd metres.

bahahahah sorry bout that. I meant 1.1meters or 1100mm.

Thanks for the replys guys.
$33 a meter is so damn expensive...Would be cheaper to build it from just sleepers.

[namtrak]

bahahahah sorry bout that. I meant 1.1meters or 1100mm.

Thanks for the replys guys.
$33 a meter is so damn expensive...Would be cheaper to build it from just sleepers.

You may want to price it all out.

I think block retaining walls, timber retaining walls and the I-beam walls all work out fairly similar in cost once everything is taken into consideration.

[woodbe]

Also, Because they are steel, I am thinking that I dont need need to dig as deep holes for them, being steel instead of wood..or am i wrong?

We built one last year, and I think the below ground depth required depends on the overall height above ground, not the materials used for the uprights.

Ours used the steel posts and concrete sleepers. It's not that rustic, but very efficient.

woodbe.

[oohsam]

OH i will definatly be pricing it all up....I will visit some steel merchants this weekend to get prices and calculate the cost.
I am thinking of nailing cement sheeting to it once its finished and rendering it with this paint, it basically looks like bag and paint when its finsihed, without having to cement render it.

I've seen this done before and it looks great.

[Planned LScape]

I do these walls pretty frequently- I get the steel from a steel stockist, the galvanised UC100 (100 wide) is $37 Lm, but they may charge you for a full length if there is an offcut left, I think a length is 9m long. There will be a cutting fee of around $2-3 per cut, which is very well worth it as it's a bugger doing it afterwards with the 9" grinder.

I set out my wall 1st, get my heights making sure the depth under the ground is sufficient to the wall height and order them already cut- it saves a lot of time and hassle. Go the galvanised also as the ordinary mild steel ones rust very quickly and look pretty ordinary.

[oohsam]

Thanks for the info PlannedLScape.

I've done the maths and after costing out everything, the prices are very comparable using steel vs Sleepers as stumps. The upside is that I dont have to bolt/nail each sleeper to the stump with the I/H beam so assembly will be much quicker once the posts are in the ground...

Just quick question -
The retaining wall I will be building will begin at a 1meter height and span for approximatley 10 Meters (2 meters per post), and the wall will reduce in height as the wall continues, it will be about 1/2 a meter at the 5 meter mark.

My question here is:
1. Should I keep all my depths 600mm still however, order shorter posts
(ensuring they are high enough to hold the amount of sleepers required for the height) so the wall will stagger down,

or

2.Do i reduce the depth of the post holes as well based on the height of the wall at that point?

or

3. Do I make the wall the same level all the way (1 meter) but simply backfill the lower points and make a 'garden bed' out of it?

I know its all personal perferance but some advice would be great....

[Planned LScape]

You could reduce the depth of the posts as the wall gets lower, but it wouldnt be much.

Generally I put my posts in @ 800mm into the ground for 1m above, for half that I wouldn't go any shallower than 500mm deep. It depends on the backfill of the wall and what sort of material it is retaining- if it is soft clay it will require deeper footings as the clay will be very heavy when wet.

Last year I had to do a wall on the fill side of a house cut, engineering plans said to put the posts down 1.6m to every 800mm. It put the costs up thats for sure!

Just get your sleepers to line up with each course of sleepers, it will be nice looking aesthetically then

[oohsam]

Thank you so much for the advice. I really appreciate it.
Im only going 600 deep. The 1100m retaining wall that was put there by the engineers was only 600 deep so Im sure it should be fine.

[Gingermick]

Dont forget to put some coarse stone inside at the bottom of the wall to help drain any water from the soil. This also needs to be able to get out. So weep holes in your bottom sleeper or something. Water behind retaining walls is the main reason for them falling down

[oohsam]

Gingermick,
I was just going to put some coarse stone at the bottom, then some AG pipe, and then some more coarse rock on top, covered with back fill. OR is that wrong?

[Gingermick]

Good, just make sure you have an outlet for the ag pipe.