Retaining wall installation and timber boundary fencing in a terraced backyard

Retaining Wall And Fencing Services Across South East Queensland

Eight services covering both halves of a sloped-block job, from the wall holding the cut to the fence and gate sitting on top of it. This page is here to help you work out which one you are actually after.

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What decides which system your block needs

Four things settle it, and none of them is preference. The first is retained height, because Queensland draws a statutory line at 1.0 metre above natural ground for the wall plus the fill or cut it holds, and crossing it changes the job from landscaping into regulated building work with a certifier attached. The second is surcharge, meaning anything loading the ground above the wall such as a driveway, a shed slab, a pool shell or a second wall stepping down behind it. Surcharge triggers approval at any height at all, which catches a lot of low walls people assumed were exempt.

The third is ground. Brisbane's ridge-and-gully blocks, the reactive clay through the older Ipswich streets, the soft filled ground under Gold Coast canal estates and the red basalt clay on the Buderim plateau all behave differently once water is in them, which is why subsoil drainage is treated as structural rather than decorative on every wall on this site. The fourth is access, and it moves the price more than most people expect. A wall a machine can reach is a straightforward job. The same wall behind a pool, down a set of stairs or through a side gate becomes hand work with barrows.

Fencing runs on a parallel set of rules rather than the same ones. Fences up to 2 metres above natural ground are generally accepted development, over 2 metres needs a certifier, and a fence sitting on top of a retaining wall is assessed on the two heights combined. Pool barriers are a separate regime again under the Queensland pool safety standard, and licensing across all of it follows the value of the work rather than any height. Get those four inputs straight and the right service on this page picks itself.

Start from your situation

If you already know what is happening on your block, this is the shortest route to the page that covers it.

The ground behind the wall carries a driveway, a slab, a pool or another wall

Concrete sleeper retaining walls
You are terracing a garden bed or holding a low cut with nothing heavy above it

Timber sleeper retaining walls
Someone has already told you the wall needs an engineer, or it has to sit hard against a boundary

Besser block retaining walls
A wall you already have is leaning, bulging, rotting or holding water at the base

Retaining wall repairs
You want a boundary line that needs no painting and holds straight across a long run

Colorbond fencing
You want a traditional privacy fence, or you are replacing an ageing paling run

Timber fencing
You have a pool to barrier, or a sale or lease needs a pool safety certificate

Pool fencing
The driveway is the last gap in the fence line, or a manual gate needs automating

Gates and gate automation

Retaining wall installation and fencing services

Each page covers the scope, the decision points, what moves the price and the approval rules that apply to that particular kind of work.

Concrete Sleeper Retaining Walls For walls above the statutory height, or where a driveway or slab loads the ground behind them. View service -> Timber Sleeper Retaining Walls For garden terracing and lower cuts where the ground above the wall carries nothing heavier than planting. View service -> Besser Block (Core-Filled) Retaining Walls For the tall or heavily loaded wall someone has already told you needs an engineer. View service -> Retaining Wall Repairs & Replacement For an existing wall that has started moving, and the repair-or-rebuild question that comes with it. View service -> Colorbond Fencing For a boundary line you would rather not maintain, and for making sense of quotes that do not match. View service -> Timber Fencing For a traditional privacy line, and for working out which paling style suits a fence you will look at daily. View service -> Pool Fencing For a new pool barrier, or for a property that needs to pass a pool safety certificate before settlement. View service -> Gates & Gate Automation For finishing a boundary line with a driveway gate, or automating one you already have. View service ->

Not sure which one you need?

Describe the block instead. The height you are holding, what sits above it, the length of the run, or simply what has started moving. That is enough for us to point the enquiry at the right kind of work and come back with something useful.

Plenty of jobs across this region are both halves at once, a wall holding the cut and a new boundary fence going on top of it. If that is yours, say so and we will treat it as one project rather than two quotes.

Find a service in your suburb

Council posture and ground conditions vary across Brisbane, Ipswich, the Gold Coast and the Sunshine Coast. The suburb pages carry the local notes.

Paddington Steep hand-cut Queenslander blocks off Latrobe Terrace, where old timber retaining and boundary work is due for a rebuild. Bardon Steep foothill blocks climbing toward Mount Coot-tha, where cut-and-fill terraces carry real surcharge from driveways above. Ashgrove Creek-side blocks along Enoggera Creek sit low and wet after rain, so drainage behind any wall or fence line matters here. The Gap Bushland-fringe blocks backing onto forest reserve, where fence lines meet natural bushland and steep rear yards. Chapel Hill Acreage-edge blocks on Gap Creek Road grade sharply toward Brookfield, so terraced walls carry real fill loads. Camp Hill Rises toward Whites Hill mean older timber-sleeper cuts from the post-war building boom are now due for replacement. All locations Thirty suburbs across the four regions we cover.

Talk to a specialist

Tell us what your block needs

Send the height, the run and what sits above the cut. You will get a written response covering the work, the drainage and whether approval applies.