Retaining Wall Design
From £650 — Banded by Height and Surcharge
Retained height and what sits behind the wall are what drive the engineering — and the fee. CEng MIStructE — Engineering Safety First.
What Drives the Fee
A retaining wall has to resist the earth pressing against it, and it has to do so without sliding forward, without rotating about its toe, and without overloading the ground beneath it. Those three checks — sliding, overturning, and bearing — are carried out to Eurocode 7, and where the wall is reinforced concrete the reinforcement is designed to Eurocode 2.
Two things dominate the outcome: how much ground you are retaining, and what is sitting on top of it. A 1 m garden terrace is a different structure from a 2 m wall with a car parked behind it, and the bands below reflect that.
Fee Bands
Low Wall
£650
Garden or landscaping wall, retained height up to 1.0 m, no surcharge behind it. Simple gravity or mass masonry, or block construction.
Most domestic garden terracing and planting beds.
Standard Wall
£850
Retained height 1.0–1.5 m with a modest surcharge. Mass or reinforced concrete cantilever, with earth pressure, sliding, overturning, bearing, and drainage detail.
Sloping gardens and levelled patios on a gradient.
Higher or Loaded Wall
£1,150
Retained height 1.5–2.5 m, or a driveway or vehicle surcharge bearing on the retained ground, or a full reinforced concrete cantilever with reinforcement design.
Driveway edges, parking areas above a retained slope.
Complex
From £1,400
Over 2.5 m retained, a building or structure surcharge, poor or made ground, specialist systems (gabion, crib, sheet-pile, contiguous or secant), or Party Wall implications. Priced bespoke.
Walls retaining ground beneath a neighbouring building or structure.
Add-Ons
All prices are final — no VAT is added. Site attendance is charged separately under our Site Attendance schedule.
Retaining Walls That Form Part of a Basement
If the wall you are building forms part of a basement, this is not a retaining wall job. It requires a Basement Impact Assessment, which considers ground movement, groundwater, and the effect on neighbouring properties. Contact us and we will tell you honestly what you need.
What the Fee Does Not Include
The fee covers design only — calculations and Building Control detail. It excludes:
- Ground or site investigation, and geotechnical reports — the design assumes typical granular retained soil with stated parameters
- Temporary works design (unless quoted separately at our hourly rate)
- Construction, groundworks, and drainage installation
- Party Wall etc. Act 1996 surveying and awards
- Building Control application and inspection fees
- Site attendance — charged separately under the Site Attendance schedule
What You Receive
- Full structural calculations, signed by a Chartered Engineer
- Eurocode 7 earth pressure analysis
- Sliding, overturning and bearing checks
- Eurocode 2 reinforcement design where required
- Drainage detail behind the wall
- Building Control-ready PDF
Planning a Retaining Wall?
Tell us the retained height, what sits behind the wall, and what you know about the ground. We will confirm the band and a fixed fee before any work begins.
Request a Fixed Quote