Great 5 star service, quick to respond, and happy to answer all questions. Fence was completed very quickly and it looks great. It's better than expected. If fencing and retaining are required, look no further. Thank you
Tricia Turner
Ground held, permanently
4.5 Excellent
Based on 16 Google reviews
Retaining walls
Scenic Rim Retaining Wall Builders is a family business building steel reinforced concrete sleeper retaining walls across the Scenic Rim, Logan, Ipswich and the Gold Coast. Jake has over 12 years in the industry. The business has been Scenic Rim Retaining Wall Builders since 2023. Steep cuts, reactive clay, water running the wrong way, and access a machine can barely get through. That is most of this country, and it is the work.
Galvanised posts to the depth the ground calls for, steel reinforced sleepers between them. Nothing about the finished face tells you how far down it goes.
What goes in
Geofabric, a 100 mm socked ag pipe and 20 mm drainage gravel behind every wall. Most cheap quotes backfill with dirt instead, and that’s what pushes a wall over.
Why walls fail
A range of finishes from dark charcoal to sandstone, in three lengths. You choose yours after you’ve accepted the quote.
The range
Why quotes differ
Most quotes aren’t for a different wall. They’re for a different amount of the work you can’t see once it’s finished.
| What moves the price | Why | Effect |
|---|---|---|
| Retained height | Walls are priced by the square metre of face, so height counts as much as length. A metre high wall has twice the face of a half metre one. | Biggest |
| Site access | Tight access adds machine and operator time, and more again if the sleepers have to go in by hand. If there’s no way to get the machine in at all, we can’t do the job. | Adds time |
| Rock | If the pier holes hit rock, it has to be broken to get the holes to depth. | Adds time |
| What sits above | A driveway or shed pad within 1.5 metres of the wall means it has to be engineered, and we don’t build engineered walls. When a wall needs approval. | Can rule a wall out |
| Drainage | The line cheap quotes leave out, and the most expensive thing to put right afterwards. It’s in every quote of ours. | Always included |
| Approvals | Council approvals and fees are the owner’s to arrange and pay, so a quote that seems to include them is worth reading twice. | Separate to the quote |
In the quote
Every quote we send spells out what’s in it, so you can hold it next to anyone else’s and compare the same things.
Included
- Removing and disposing of the old wall, where there is one
- Set out, string lines and levels
- 450 mm pier holes and galvanised steel posts
- Posts concreted with 32 MPa concrete from the plant
- Steel reinforced concrete sleepers, plain grey, or any Premium or Showcase design if you accept within 14 days
- A 6 year 6 month workmanship warranty, and 50 years on the sleeper from our supplier
- Geofabric, 100 mm socked ag pipe and drainage gravel behind the wall
- The machine, the labour and every material for the wall
Not included, and we say so up front
- Fencing. We don’t build fences any more, and we’ll put you onto the fencing contractor we work with
- The site cut, and backfilling with soil
- Landscaping and landscaping preparation
- Council approvals and fees, which are the owner’s to arrange
- Engineering. We don’t build engineered walls
The quote is the retaining wall. Anything else is only in it if it’s written in and priced. It’s the most common misunderstanding in this trade, so we’d rather say it here as well as on the quote.
The range
A retaining wall is the biggest surface in most back yards, and the sleepers carry a 50 year warranty. Pick one you’ll like looking at.
Applications
Where the wall goes changes what it has to be.
Boundary
Long runs that have to stay dead straight, often with a fence going on top.
Terrace
Turning a slope into flat ground you can actually use, in steps rather than one tall wall.
Structural
Walls carrying something above them: a pergola, a shed pad, a driveway.
Rebuild
Knocking down a wall that's failed and building one that won't.
How it runs
Four stages, and you know where you're at in every one of them.
It's just the two of us. Brittany takes your call and runs the office, and Jake quotes your wall and builds it. No sales reps, and no crew you've never met.
- 01
Tell us about the wall
Six short questions online, or give us a ring. Brittany calls you back the same day or the next business day. If you know roughly how long and how high the wall is, she'll give you an estimate on the phone, and she'll tell you straight that it's an estimate and not a quote.
- 02
Jake comes out on a Saturday
If it's a wall we build, you go on the quote list for that Saturday and Brittany confirms your time on the Thursday or Friday. Jake measures it on site: the retained height, the access for the machine, what sits above the wall and where the water's going.
- 03
A locked price
The price you accept is the price you pay. It's locked for 30 days and there are no builder variations. The final number only changes if you ask for extra work during the build, and then Jake agrees it with you on site and you approve a new quote first. A deposit locks in your spot in the schedule, and the rest is due when the wall's finished.
- 04
Build and hand over
Jake's on site from about 6:30, and he needs full access to the site and street parking for the deliveries. A normal wall takes two to three days, and a big tiered job five to ten. When he's done he makes sure you're happy with it, or sends you photos if you're not home, and the final invoice comes the same day.
Recent work
Some of the walls we’ve built, and where they are.
| Project | Wall type | Finish | Suburb | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 | Side yard run, backfilled | Concrete sleeper | Charcoal | Scenic Rim |
 | Sleeper wall and stairs | Concrete sleeper with steps | Charcoal | Scenic Rim |
 | Wall built to carry a pergola | Concrete sleeper | Charcoal | Oxenford |
 | Feature sleeper wall replacing timber | Concrete sleeper | Feature range | Chuwar |
 | Knock down and rebuild under Colorbond | Concrete sleeper | Charcoal | Boonah |
 | Knock down and rebuild | Concrete sleeper | Timber look | Springwood |
What people say
4.5 Excellent
Based on 16 Google reviews
“He explained everything clearly so we could make confident financial decisions.”
Tanya Gwin, Google
Questions
Not answered here? Ring us on 0480 501 886.
The questions we get asked most
Usually not, if all of these are true: the total height of the wall and the fill or cut it retains is no more than 1 metre, there's no surcharge load behind it, it's no closer than 1.5 metres to a building or another wall, and it isn't part of a pool barrier. If your wall is on the boundary line, check with your council first.
Approvals are yours to arrange and pay for, and we'll tell you at the start if it looks like your wall needs one.
The part almost everyone gets wrong is that the metre is retained height, the difference in ground level from one side to the other. It is not the number of sleepers you can count from the yard. A wall that looks like 900 millimetres can already be over the line if the ground behind it was built up.
The full approval rulesMost quotes aren't for a different wall. They're for a different amount of the work you can't see once it's finished: the footings, the concrete and the drainage behind it.
Walls are priced by the square metre of face, so size moves the number most. After that it's access: if the machine can't get in easily, or Jake has to put the sleepers in by hand, it costs more. Rock that needs breaking to get the holes to depth adds to it too.
What a wall costs and whyNo, and it's the thing people most often assume. We're retaining wall builders, not landscapers. The quote is the wall: the materials, the machine, the labour, the drainage behind it, and taking the old wall away if there is one.
The site cut, backfilling with soil, and any landscaping or landscaping preparation aren't in it unless they're written into the quote and priced. We'd rather you hear that here than find out on the day.
No. Council approvals and their fees are the owner's to arrange and pay for, and we don't do engineering or build engineered walls.
What we will do is tell you at the start if your wall looks like it needs either, so you're not three quotes in before anyone mentions it.
When a wall needs approvalWalls are priced per square metre of wall face, not per metre of length. A 20 metre wall at half a metre high is 10 square metres. The same wall at 1 metre high is 20 square metres, and twice the job.
If you know roughly how long and how high your wall is, Brittany can give you an estimate on the phone, including GST. It's an estimate, not a quote: things like rock breaking or tight access can change it, and the locked price comes after Jake's measured it on site. We don't take on walls under $8,000.
Published rates by materialA normal sized wall takes two to three days on site. A big job, like a two tier wall, can take five to ten business days. Jake's there from about 6:30 each morning.
What stretches it is weather, deliveries, rock and other trades like the concrete plant, all of which are out of our hands. So the time we give you is our honest estimate rather than a promise.
Water. Wet soil is heavier than dry soil and clay swells when it holds water, so a wall built to hold dry ground is holding something else entirely after a wet summer.
That's why our quotes spell out the drainage: geofabric, a 100 millimetre socked ag pipe and drainage gravel behind the wall. If a quote you're holding just says drainage, or doesn't mention it, ask what's actually going in.
Why walls failWe only build concrete sleeper walls. Timber is cheaper on the day, but it rots, and in wet clay it doesn't last. If timber's what you're after, we're not the right people for the job.
Concrete sleepers from our supplier carry a 50 year warranty on the sleeper, and the steel reinforcing inside them is the part you're really paying for.
The materialRetaining walls are not covered by Queensland's dividing fences legislation. That Act is about fences and trees, so retaining wall disputes are decided case by case on common law.
The thread through all of it is that responsibility follows the benefit. If you cut into your land, or you filled it, the wall is usually yours.
Boundary wallsNo. We used to, and we stopped because of disputes with neighbours.
What we do have is a fencing contractor we trust and work with closely, who can quote the fence for you. We leave the wall straight and the levels right, so there's nothing for them to fight. One of our reviews is from a customer thanking us for splitting the job between experts, and we'd rather earn that than the extra invoice.
How we work1100 millimetres. That is what the 1.7 tonne machine needs to get through, and it is the number worth measuring at your narrowest point before you ring anybody.
If there's no way to get the machine in, we don't take the job. Tighter access can still work, but it adds machine and operator time, and if Jake has to put the sleepers in by hand, that's in the price too.
Yes. We don't take on retaining walls under $8,000.
If your wall is smaller than that we will say so on the phone rather than come out and quote something neither of us wants.
Because past a metre of retained height it stops being the same job. It takes a higher licence class, ten metre tippers, a twenty tonne excavator, a crew of three or four, and a great deal more council and engineering paperwork. That is a different business to the one we have chosen to be.
We would rather be very good at the walls we do build than passable at every wall there is. If yours is over a metre we will tell you on the call and you can go straight to somebody set up for it, instead of finding out three quotes later.
How the metre is measuredJake keeps going until he can't, or stops and waits on site until he can carry on. If it's heavy enough that the machine could get bogged or deliveries can't get in, he'll come back the next day once it's dried out enough.
Yes. We don't take on retaining wall jobs under $8,000.
If your wall is smaller than that, say so on the phone and Brittany will tell you straight.
No. We knock down and rebuild, and we do not repair somebody else's wall.
A repair means taking on the liability for work we did not do and cannot see. What is behind the face is the part that decides whether a wall stands, and we have no way of knowing what went in there. If your wall is failing, what we quote is a rebuild.
No. Concrete sleeper retaining walls only.
No turf, no plants, no garden beds, no fencing, no timber, no rock or sandstone walls. We're retaining wall builders, not landscapers, and the quote is the retaining wall.
1100 millimetres. That's the width our 1.7 tonne machine needs to get through.
If there's no way to get it to the wall, we don't take the job. Tighter access can still work, but it adds machine and operator time, and if Jake has to put the sleepers in by hand, that's in the price too.
Next
Tell us about the block
Six short questions, about two minutes. Brittany rings you back, then Jake comes out and measures it. Quotes are locked for 30 days, with no builder variations.
