Timber Retaining Walls
Timber does most of the work in the Hutt Valley. A pole and rail wall goes up in a few days, costs less per metre than anything else, and holds a 1.2m step in level.
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Normandale, Wellington region
Retaining Walls in Normandale
Top Retaining Walls Lower Hutt builds retaining walls throughout Normandale, on the western hills between Maungaraki and Belmont. Normandale is steep, leafy and served by narrow winding roads, and all three of those facts show up in how a wall gets built here.
- Timber, block, gabion, stone and engineered walls
- Full drainage behind every wall we build
- Consents lodged through Hutt City Council
- Drainage on every wall300mm of metal, a drain coil and geotextile. Never an optional extra.
- H5 poles as standardThe right treatment for timber that lives in wet ground.
- Consents handledHutt City, Upper Hutt and Wellington, start to finish.
- Itemised quotesYou see what the drainage and the spoil actually cost.
Narrow roads limit what we can bring in
The roads climbing Normandale are tight and winding with limited places to park a truck, let alone a truck and trailer. That decides machine size and how materials get delivered before we even look at the wall.
We plan the delivery and the spoil route at the quote stage. On the tighter streets that sometimes means smaller loads more often, which costs more, and we would rather tell you that up front than surprise you with it.
| Council for consents | Hutt City Council |
|---|---|
| Typical ground | Weathered greywacke on a steep bush clad slope |
| Walls we build most here | Timber pole, crib and gabion |
| Consent threshold | 1.5m of retained ground, or any surcharge above the wall |
| Drainage | 300mm metal, perforated coil, geotextile, on every wall |
| Site visit | Free, with a written quote to follow |
Bush clad slopes and what looks right on them
A lot of Normandale sections back onto native regrowth, and a hard manufactured block face against bush looks wrong immediately. Timber pole walls, crib walls with planted front cells and gabions all sit better in that setting.
Gabions in particular green over within a couple of seasons, so the wall stops reading as a structure and starts reading as part of the slope.
Water off a Normandale slope has to be controlled
Weathered greywacke clay sheds water rather than absorbing it, and these slopes are steep. Getting surface and subsurface water off the site in a controlled way is part of keeping the slope stable, not just part of protecting the wall.
We think carefully about where the drain coil discharges. Moving water from behind your wall to the top of your neighbour's bank is not a solution, it is a transfer.
Not sure whether your wall needs a consent? Send us a photo and a rough height. Under 1.5m of retained ground with nothing loading it from above is exempt. A driveway, a building, a pool or fill sloping up behind it is a surcharge, and that changes the answer.
Common questions
Retaining walls in Normandale: common questions
Can you get materials up my driveway?
Usually, with the right machine and smaller loads. Send photos of the road frontage and the driveway with your enquiry and we will tell you before we visit.
What suits a bush edge section?
Gabion, crib with planted cells, or timber. All three sit better against native regrowth than a hard block face, and all three drain well.
Wall types
Retaining walls we build in Normandale
Concrete and Block Retaining Walls
Concrete goes in wherever something heavy sits above the wall, and in a city built beside an active fault it is also what engineers reach for first. We build.
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Engineered Retaining Walls
Past 1.5m, or once a driveway or building sits above it, the job changes completely. You need a chartered engineer, a building consent from Hutt City Council and.
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Stone and Gabion Retaining Walls
Stone suits the Hutt hills, where a hard manufactured face can look wrong against bush and rock. The whole region is founded on greywacke, so local quarries put out.
See moreNeed a retaining wall in Normandale?
Answer three quick questions or call [PHONE] and we will book a free site visit.