Build a retaining wall with formwork yourself

Hello everyone!

We are now in our little house and every day I spend a few hours in the garden shoveling gravel and soil in various directions. But slowly we also have to take care of supporting our terrain. We need to retain a length of almost 42m. The height will be about 1m. We have already spoken with a relative who knows quite a bit about this stuff. He recommended simply building a formwork (50 cm into the ground and then 1 m high) and pouring concrete in - of course including reinforcement. It should come much cheaper for us than L-shaped stones. So far so good.

But now the thought of having to get all the OSB boards does hurt my teeth a bit. We then considered pouring always 2m sections and then reusing the boards. But I’m really not happy with that either.

I have now seen that you can also rent formwork. Somewhere there was also a picture of a curved formwork (there would also be a curve in our case). Does anyone know about this subject? Can anyone recommend something? Or do you even have a completely different approach?

A slope is out of the question?

I would ask the big rental providers (Boels ...) if they have shell elements available. You will probably need a (small?) excavator to dig the trench and for transporting the shell elements. Then reinforcement steel, ready-mix concrete. Maybe some measuring equipment (line laser? profile framework? tape measure? spirit level?)

50 cm deep? Will a structural analysis be done? Does something like this need to be frost-proofed? Should you ask someone who knows about this? :P

A slope would be unfavorable. On the one hand, we lose too much of the property, on the other hand, I have to plant it and I don't feel like trimming it every year.

I once inquired with a local landlord. Maybe we’re lucky and get it fairly cheap. We will dig the trench with a shovel. That can be done well with the soft soil. It will basically be founded frost-free. Good soil will then be placed on the outside of the "wall" so that it should fit. And if not... it's only a fairly small retaining wall, on which no load lies except the soil and the fence.

Morning,

the L-shaped stones cost 200 euros per running meter at this height, completely including the foundation and installation.

If you only build short sections at a time, you have to mix the concrete yourself. Do you feel confident doing that, in exposed concrete quality? Can you compact it so that it looks good?

I would consider building a wall out of natural stones as a support. This can be easier for a layperson than exposed concrete. You can also masonry only the front view and then use your slabs from behind as formwork and then pour concrete to the width. It does not have to look nice at the back. The advantage is you can also create your arch at the front.

The wall doesn’t have to be pretty. I can hardly see it, and the forest doesn’t care about it either. Everything will just grow over it anyway. It only needs to be functional. 200 euros per meter is already too much. At 42 meters, that’s way too expensive. I’d rather build a formwork and fill it section by section. We have the mixers for that. I just don’t really feel like mixing it myself. Ideally, I’d have ready-mix concrete delivered. But that only makes sense if I do the entire length. That should be around 18 cubic meters of concrete. The rental service said that renting the formwork for that length will cost around 1000 euros. Hmm, I could also use OSB boards for that.