Retaining Wall Drainage Repair in Lower Hutt
Top Retaining Walls Lower Hutt repairs and retrofits drainage behind existing retaining walls. Drains that have silted up, drains that were never connected to an outlet, weep holes that have blocked, and walls that were built without any drainage at all.
- Blocked drains behind existing walls
- Cleared, jetted or replaced with geotextile added
- Far cheaper than the rebuild it prevents
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This is the cheapest job on this website relative to what it prevents. A wall that is showing early signs of movement because the drain behind it has stopped working can often be saved for a fraction of the rebuild cost, provided somebody gets to it before the posts or the footing give up.
How drainage behind a retaining wall fails
Silt migration
Without geotextile between the drainage aggregate and the backfill soil, fine silt washes into the aggregate over a few years and the whole drainage zone becomes a solid block of mud. This is the most common failure and it is invisible from the front.
Roots
Drainage pipe is a reliable water source, and roots find it. A pipe full of fine root mat carries nothing.
Outlets that never went anywhere
A drain laid behind a wall and then simply ended in the ground is common. It fills, it stays full, and the wall carries the water pressure the drain was supposed to remove.
Retaining wall drainage repair without dismantling the wall
Where there is access behind, we trench along the back of the wall, remove the failed material, install new slotted pipe on a proper fall, fresh drainage metal, geotextile over the top, and run the outlet somewhere real.
Where the pipe is intact but blocked, jetting can clear it, though without geotextile it will silt again. On solid walls we can also drill new weep holes through the face to give water a second escape route.
Drainage repair cost against rebuilding the wall
Drainage retrofit runs about $84 to $210 per metre. Rebuilding the wall runs $400 to $3,500 per square metre of face plus removal.
On a wall showing early movement, that is a straightforward decision. On a wall that has already rotated, drainage alone will not bring it back and we will say so.
Drainage Repair at a glance
- Most common failure
- Silt migration into the aggregate where geotextile was omitted
- Other causes
- Root ingress, and outlets that were never connected
- Repair
- Trench, replace pipe and metal, add geotextile, run a real outlet
- Alternative
- Jetting where the pipe is intact, plus new weep holes on solid walls
- Cost
- About $84 to $210 per metre
- Limit
- Will not recover a wall that has already rotated
Drainage Repair in Lower Hutt: common questions
Can a blocked drain be cleared?
Sometimes by jetting, where the pipe itself is intact. Without geotextile behind it, it will silt up again.
How do I know the drain has failed?
Water seeping through the wall face, ground staying wet behind it long after rain, or the wall starting to bulge. Nothing visible from the front until it is well advanced.
Is it worth doing on an old wall?
If the structure is still sound, absolutely. It costs a fraction of a rebuild and it removes the thing that would cause one.
Can you add weep holes?
Yes, on block and concrete walls, as a second escape route for water.
Can a blocked drain behind a wall be jetted clear?
Where the pipe itself is intact, yes, and it is worth trying first. What jetting cannot fix is the reason it blocked. Without geotextile between the drainage metal and the backfill soil, silt keeps washing in and it will clog again within a few years.
How much does retaining wall drainage repair cost?
About $84 to $210 per metre where there is access behind the wall to trench along. Set that against $400 to $3,500 per square metre of wall face to rebuild, plus removal, and on a wall showing early movement it is a straightforward decision.
Will fixing the drainage stop my wall from moving?
If the movement is water driven and the structure is otherwise sound, usually yes, because removing the water removes the load rather than resisting it. If the wall has already rotated as a unit or the posts have gone, drainage alone will not bring it back and we will say so rather than take the smaller job.
Recent Lower Hutt jobs
Boundary wall between us and the neighbour on a new build. Sorted the levels, the consent question and the fence on top in one job. Turned up when they said and left the site clean every night.
Builder here. I use them on infill work because the paperwork comes back complete. PS1 up front, PS4 at the end, no chasing.
Wall failed after the big rain and took part of the bank with it. Made safe within two days and rebuilt a month later with real drainage behind it.
Terraced the back lawn into two levels. Fast, tidy, fair price, and the drainage was done properly.
Get a price for drainage repair in Lower Hutt
Free site visit, a fixed written quote, and a straight answer on what the wall actually needs.
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