Plain concrete is as cheap as it gets for structural walls. No, the work to make a retaining wall isn't cheap. But, if it's necessary to keep your house from sliding down the slope, you wouldn't want the low bid.

If it's holding your house up you need it to be designed by an appropriate engineer, and it's probably not going to be cheap. Concrete is probably as cheap as it gets; your choices may be limited to how you make it prettier. Fast-growing tenacious vines probably work well.

its not holding my house up - but its around my pool on a hillside which is why its engineering is important. interesting that you both say concrete cheapest - but the quote is just so ridiculous i can't imagine how any one affords to do any of these walls. and i can't imagine what could be more expensive.

It's all about labor with concrete walls. If you can manage the labor costs you can get a concrete retaining wall for very little money.

If you're blindsided by the cost, whomever did your budget was not well informed.

worried that it will look really fake

As opposed to a "genuine" retaining wall?

I have done several block retaining walls with Risi Stone. It's very labour intensive and works better than concrete. But cheap it's not.

This post was edited by worthy on Fri, Sep 26, 14 at 10:06

We have a retaining wall that we are putting in to terrace the side yard for aesthetics. We found the best bang for the buck to be Ecoblocks or a non-fancy concrete interlocking block. The are dirt cheap but you need the labor still and some design work. We plan to clad with the same exterior stone ourselves later on.

I agree, that should've been brought to your attention during early design phases so it could be worked into your budget.

A hillside pool can be a 100K to a 300K project by itself due to the engineering needed. I'm curious as to what pricing you expected?

I'm going to recommend revisiting your budget and paying for the best job. My neighbor 2 doors down had their pool on a slope that collapsed. What an expensive mess to repair!
And on my build, I am paying thru the nose for concrete retaining walls too. I initially wanted them faced with rock but now, over-budget, I am having them stuccoed.

live wire oak - we are over $350,000 for pool plus retaining walls. we were quoted about $200,000. the major increase in cost is the retaining walls - more than double the initial quote for that part of the project.

Can you downsize and/or move the pool to make the retaining walls smaller? Shallower? Shorter?

Or accept that the pool is out of budget?

What about doing the retaining wall work now, and doing the pool later? It would be difficult to get equipment in and do the soil disturbance with a home already on site, so if you can manage to do that during your build, you'll be ahead when you're ready for the pool.

$150k for retaining walls? How big are those walls?

That's a whole lot of retaining wall. Might want to get a few more quotes.

I have a 6'-8' high retaining wall on one side of my house and I've seen others going up around the neighborhood and they don't look like they cost tens of thousands (never mind 150k) to build. I can see paying good money for an engineer to design, but the actual construction is pretty straightforward and materials (cement block, cement, and rebar) are pretty cheap.

BTW, if your backyard is sloping away from the house, have you considered an infinity-edge pool? You could incorporate the retaining wall into the back wall and catch basin of the pool.

Seismic requirements?

No way I would pay that.

For less than that price you could have a country club membership (pool, tennis, other amenities) for the rest of your life . . . and the rest of your children's lives . . . and your grandchildren's lives . . .

What area of the country are you in?

MrsPete, not sure where you live, but in my area that $150k overage would only cover about 10 years of membership at a mid-level country club.

I'm in CA and any retaining walls are over engineered and have to be approved and inspected by the city engineering department. They are expensive.

Where are you? Up north where they have to go down 4 feet for footings? How long, tall and wide is this wall? IMO....that price is just plain ripping someone off. They see you as having money and they are trying to get as much as they can.

Thanks all. We are in northeast -- and expensive place to build but no risk of earthquakes. I am not sure how deep the footings go or how thick the walls are. Basically they said that they were expensive because of all the rebar that has to go in it to support the hill. Not being an engineer its difficult for me to determine what is needed and what is basically bs. The wall itself is 60 feet long and maybe 5 feet high -- not quite sure.

You're in the NORTHeast? Pools probably aren't too common there, are they?

So you're probably paying a contractor who is unfamiliar with building pools. So he's probably overcharging you to cover his butt in case the project doesn't go well.

You say the retaining wall is 5' high? But how far below ground do they have to dig for support?

This is to support your pool. Water is heavy. A quick google search shows that a 20x40 pool holds about 24,000 gallons of water. Water weighs 8.333 pds per gallon. So you are looking at 200,000 lbs of water. That's 100 tons of water.

Haven't you mentioned on other threads that you are near the ocean? I seem to recall something about a window tub with an ocean view? So wondering if there is some erosion issues? Or if you are on a hillside if there is ledge?

What did your contractor say to justify the increase in cost?

What pixie-lou said. And the answer ain't "cuz rebar is expensive". $150k buys a heckuva lotta rebar.

How far into this project are you? Have they broken ground? Almost doubling the initial estimate sounds pretty hinky to me ...

"This is to support your pool. Water is heavy. A quick google search shows that a 20x40 pool holds about 24,000 gallons of water. Water weighs 8.333 pds per gallon. So you are looking at 200,000 lbs of water. That's 100 tons of water."

An exposed supporting wall for a pool doesn't cost too much. My pool has a pretty long infinity edge, with that back wall being freestanding. The entire pool ran 40-50k, so the structure was some fraction of that. The shotcrete and rebar guys each did their thing in one day, so not a lot of labor was involved.

Hi housebuilder- We paid a lot for our foundation which is essentially a retaining wall on three sides with the highest part being 14 feet high. Our foundation houses a small pool on that side, and we had one of the most expensive guys around here do the work. I will tell you, that bid estimate for what you are putting in there is WAY out of line (unless it's an Olympic sized pool:). You would do well to kick back and visit some waterfront communities and older subdivisions to get some idea of who could do some quality work for you at a reasonable price.

Also, I wonder if it would be possible to amend your elevation with stairs that descend to the pool, so that your wall can be about 2-3 feet high instead of 5'. One of our neighbors opted for a design like that, and it is very pretty. If we had done something like that, it would be the place for everyone to sit and watch the kids go up and down to the pool.

We're in Southeast PA and our property was on a 3 to 1 slope. We had a retaining wall built for a large patio (12'+ x 100') The wall block was Cornerstone. Our final cost was around $38k (patio/railing install was extra) Engineering should be $800-$1,200 and will detail geo grid and drainage. The major danger to any wall is water.... keep it away from the wall at every opportunity. In our location clean fill was expensive and we went with crusher run and clean stone for the drainage chimney's. Took about 10 days to complete. Would have loved to place a pool with an infinity edge... but haven't hit the lottery yet!

Bob

thanks diveguy.