Retaining Walls Brisbane | Natural Stone

Limestone and sandstone feature wall above travertine paving

02 — Service

Stone Walls & Planter Boxes

A wall is the most permanent thing in a garden. It is worth building out of something that looks better in twenty years than it did on the day it went in.

No two walls are the same, because no two blocks are. Each one is designed for its own slope and its own garden rather than repeated from the last job, and built by Duncan — the person who drew it.

Retaining walls, feature walls and raised planter boxes in limestone, travertine, granite and bluestone, plus the ranges carried by the main stone yards. Samples form part of the design service so you choose from the real material rather than a photograph of it.

Lighting is designed into the wall from the start rather than added afterwards. A stone wall with light raking across it is the single cheapest way to make a garden worth looking at after dark, and it only works if the conduit went in before the stone did.

Duncan holds a Queensland builder licence for structural landscaping (1161156). That matters most on the walls that are doing structural work — holding a slope, carrying a driveway, or supporting anything above them.

Limestone, travertine, granite, bluestone
Retaining and feature walls
Raised planter boxes
Integrated night lighting

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Detail

Where stone earns its money

01

Retaining a slope

South-east Queensland blocks fall away more often than they sit flat. Retaining in stone turns the unusable half of a yard into the part you actually use.

02

Terracing

Two or three lower walls instead of one tall one is frequently cheaper, always better looking, and gives you planted beds you can reach without a ladder.

03

Raised planters

Planter boxes bring soil up to a height you can work at, and give you drainage control on a block where the native soil fights you.

04

Feature walls

A wall that is not holding anything back, built purely because the courtyard needed a face. Often the cheapest element in a garden that people remember most.

Budget

What moves the number

No two gardens are the same job, so there is no list price. What there is, is a straight answer about what drives the number — and a concept with costings in writing before you commit to anything.

01

Access and site

Height is the first driver, and it is not linear. In Queensland a retaining wall generally needs building approval once it passes about a metre, or where it carries a surcharge load such as a driveway, a pool or a structure above it — your certifier confirms the specifics for your block. Engineering, drainage and footings step up accordingly.

02

Scale and structure

Stone choice is the second. The same wall in a standard sandstone and in a selected limestone are different jobs, because the material cost and the time it takes to lay it both move.

03

Materials and finish

Access is the third. Stone is heavy. Where a machine can reach the wall line the build is straightforward; where every block goes through a side gate by hand, the labour is the job.

Tell Duncan the budget you are comfortable with and the concept gets designed to it. The work can be staged — plenty of gardens start as one wall, one path or one bed.

Start with a consultation

The work

Stone Walls & Planter Boxes — built

Two levels of stacked sandstone garden wall with clipped hedging behind — Stacked sandstone garden walls

Sandstone block wall with recessed lighting and agapanthus planted at its base — Lit sandstone wall with agapanthus

Curved natural stone wall retaining a dark garden pond — Curved stone pond wall

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Questions

Stone Walls & Planter Boxes — answered

Generally in Queensland a retaining wall needs building approval once it exceeds roughly a metre in height, or where it supports a surcharge load such as a driveway, pool or structure. Thresholds and overlays vary, so the certifier for your block confirms it. Duncan holds a Queensland builder licence for structural landscaping (1161156) and works to that requirement rather than around it.

Limestone, travertine, granite and bluestone, plus the ranges carried by the main stone yards. Samples form part of the design service so you choose from the real material.

Up front, usually yes. Over the life of the wall the comparison changes, because the stone wall is still there. Where the budget will not carry stone the whole way, a common answer is stone where the wall is seen and sleepers where it is not.

Yes, and it is worth doing. Lighting gets designed in from the start so the conduit is in place before the stone goes on — retrofitting it later costs more and never looks as clean.

Where

Featured areas

Based in Dayboro and designing gardens across Brisbane and Moreton Bay — every one different, wherever it is.

Every area covered

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The rest of the work

01

Got a space that isn’t working?

Dayboro, Samford, Moreton Bay and across Brisbane’s inner north — Ashgrove, Grange, Nundah and surrounds.

Book a consultation 0431 024 000

Call or text

0431 024 000

Duncan answers his own phone.

Email

simplyintreeging@live.com

Photos of the space help.

Retaining walls in Brisbane.

Stone Walls & Planter Boxes