Retaining wall

[Flowerpowerr1]

Hi all,
I’m hoping someone can help me! I’m currently in the process of buying my first house, we’ve seen a house we like it ticks all the boxes but however there is a steep retaining wall in the garden and there isn’t much patio space which is such a shame. I don’t know much about landscaping but I was wondering if it was possible to re dig and push back a retaining wall? The property has no side access too so wondering if this can be done?

Presumably it could be done, but probably going to be very expensive.

I'm not sure but as the other poster said, it's going to be expensive and you'd have the added issue of disposing of tonnes of soil through your house.

If you love the house, it wouldn't be a deal breaker for me. I'd look to build a seating area on another part of the garden.

As @WitchyWay says, maybe just steps up to the garden and patio there?

@Knittedfairies2 @WitchyWay

Yes it’ll definitely be expensive as everything is these days unfortunately! The whole house needs a full renovation too so I was hoping it could be done then but I just wanted to be sure that it’s possible and easy to find someone that can do it otherwise it would be a deal breaker for me :(

@OneForTheToad

Yes that is a good idea but ideally I’d like a flat patio so when you open the doors it’s a flat surface

It can be done but it will be very expensive. To give you idea, we spent £15k about 5 years ago to level a sloped garden and moving the retaining wall to the edge with our neighbour. We also have it designed but I believe the majority of the cost was labour and not the design and raised beds. Just remember that all that dirt has to be moved and disposed of.

Given it’s your first home. I’m guessing it isn’t a big detached house so I’m not sure if it’s worth spending a lot on your garden. It was totally worth it for us and I love my garden. We don’t plan to move anymore until we downsize, so I want my garden to be exactly how I like it. For what it is worth, it was also a very lovely garden before with a large pond and decking which make very good use of the slope to create different spaces. However I wanted a more open garden for barbecue and for the children to run around.

https://www.labc.co.uk/news/how-building-regulations-may-affect-garden-walls

We cut into a steeply sloping garden to extend and make a seating area, and had to build a fairly big retaining wall — it cost us €50k, needed an engineer and foundations. Yours would obviously be smaller, but don’t underestimate how big a job it may be, with associated costs.

Yes it can be done but if you aren’t prepared to do quite a bit of it yourself (and you definitely could, it’ll mostly just be filling buckets/ wheelbarrows with muck and putting it in a skip) it will not be cheap and yes you’ll have to take ur through the house (again it’s not terrible, most people just build a walkway of planks and push it through the house). What about getting some steps done up to a bigger patio on the higher level? It will probably be sunnier and nicer views.

@SpringBunnies Oh my that’s so expensive! Can only imagine how much it will cost now 🫣
It sounds like you’re really pleased with your new garden sounds really good!
it’s a semi detached house and will be our first home we too don’t plan on moving afterwards or not for a very long time at least so we’d like the garden to be very spacious for the children and to have lots of outdoor seating on the patio

As per above poster, roll up your sleeves and get digging. Looking at it I doubt it’s going to need foundations etc so will just be a case of demolishing what’s there and then carting a few tons of earth from there to a skip. If you want to go really frugal then soil bags into the boot of your car and then many drives to the tip. Once done to where you want you can either build the wall yourself or get someone in for that bit. If bricks not to your liking there are many options such as large wooden sleepers. If you’re going to have a go yourself bear in mind that the soil won’t play nicely and you’ll likely get a bit of an avalanche at times, so don’t chuck all the soil you’ve dug out as you’ll likely need some to level it all once you get to where you want.