What pre-cast cement blocks would you recommend for retaining walls?

[Jeremy]

I'll be excavating some soil from a hillside in front of our house in order to add a driveway in front, so will be installing a retaining wall to hold up the soil. After surveying various options, I'm leaning towards using pre-cast concrete blocks for the build, either in a cantilever style or gravity mass wall. We'll be hoping to either add brick fronting, or get a block with a pattern on the front (like here: https://retainingwallsolutions.co.uk/retaining-wall-blocks/).

 

I've found it difficult to find a lot of options online, though I gather there are many manufacturers. So I'm wondering what people on the forum have used, overall cost per m2 (I'm doing two walls at 900mm tall by 12m wide) and your experience working with the "technology".

[markc]

The wall design depends on what it will be holding back, soil type, gradient, vegetation type and coverage etc. etc. 

900mm is a low wall so fairly light construction should suffice, gabion wall would work well, easy to install and pretty fool proof

[Jeremy]

It's Welsh hillside, so freely-draining loamy soil with grass on top, and hedging along the side above. Not a very extreme grade once I take the sloped part out, probably 3%, which I'll be smoothing to flat. Part of my reason for terracing the walls was to get a nicer visual impact and also keep the geotechnical engineering minimal. I'm imagining that 225mm thick will probaby be sufficient, provided I can get a decent angle for gravity mass, or pour a foundation with some rebar in it to take the pressure. I didn't include those details, as I gather the different kinds of block have different sort of engineering that goes with them. But the short version is, not massively complex for a wall, so not needing special kids of technology.

 

Yeah, I'm doing gabions behind the house on another much bigger wall, but aiming for something a bit more in keeping with the structure (1830s Brick Victorian terrace). Was originally planning post and plank, but shifting to masonry, thus my query here to see if anyone else had tried blocks. It seems like some of the prefab blocks even have lego-like marks for stacking at the proper angle.

[canalsiderenovation]

There is always motorway barriers! See if you can find my thread . . . We used 90 metres of them!

[Makeitstop]

Have a search of this site for Allan block.

 

I think Declan has used them, if memory serves me correctly.