Heron concrete blocks plus matching steps – Mermaid Waters, Gold Coast Qld

Australian Retaining walls were called to this canal front property in Mermaid Waters, Gold Coast Qld to help our client start off their new housing project. The existing building had been demolished and our client wanted us in to construct the new Heron concrete block retaining wall plus matching steps before the new house build started and we couldn’t agree more! With a project of this magnitude and all the materials and machinery required, coupled with the very busy road at the front it was a great advantage for us to have an empty site to utilize.

After some deliberation it was agreed that the old Besser block walls would have to remain mostly in place as removing them would cause a massive collapse of the sandy land they were retaining. One concern we had with this was that the lower wall especially would continue to rotate forwards. In order to prevent this happening, we would have to install tie-back anchors through the old wall. Installing tie-backs involved us drilling holes through the old besser blocks and inserting galvanised threaded steel rods into the holes. The 2.5 metre rods have metal plates attached to them and concrete poured into a large hole surrounding the plates which prevents any further rotation forward. All this takes place well below ground level so you won’t even know they are there!

With the old wall secured, a footing was dug and concrete poured into it. The base row of Heron concrete blocks are laid straight onto the wet concrete footing and then the rest of the blocks stack on top. The blocks are core filled and back filled simultaneously and have a cap stuck down with masonry glue to finish.

With all the Heron concrete block walls finished the stairs could begin. Adhering to all council regulations regarding steps Australian Retaining walls would use a combination of 400×400 pavers and Heron concrete blocks to create the steps down to the jetty completing our part of this Mermaid Waters, Gold Coast Qld project.

If you’re wondering why the wall ends abruptly it’s because a rock wall will be extended from this end in the near future. This home is actually constructed on a rock site, so we used a large excavator to drill the holes for the posts on this site.