I’ve been asked by a customer to install a 2′ retianing wall using interlocking block. I know the process but I’ve never estimated the labor for a job. Does anybody have an idea of the per block charge for installation.
I kow this is a loaded question for here. There are alot of variables involved. I can figure for limited access so the need for wheelbarrow is extensive. I’ll figure out carting block and stone into the yard by the hour. I may try to talk them into a per hour charge. But if not I;m looking for a ballpark idea. Thanks Jeremy
Headstrong, I’ll take on anyone!
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Excavation is the hard part. Once you have things excavated down to the base level and leveled out it goes together very quickly -- you can easily do 2-4 blocks a minute.
Leveling can go quickly or slowly, depending on the soil makeup (which can vary widely within ten feet). If it's fairly sandy and the moisture level's right the gods are on your side. If it's clay or muck then it gets a lot tougher.
When doing our tiered flower garden I used the dry set post mix in some areas where the clay was stubborn -- excavate to about an inch below where you want to be, then pour in the dry mix, level with a flat shovel and tamp with a hand tamper, use a garden trowel to dig a notch for the bottom lip of the block, then set the blocks. Other areas I could just use the soil, doing about the same.
Remember that you should bury most of a block as a base.
Haul the blocks with a heavy-duty pneumatic-tired appliance dolly.
"2-4 blocks a minute?" Jeepers DanH, you are hired. :)
I'm in the process right now of in installing a 32" high retaining wall and the blocks are 83# each with the caps weighing 110#. I'll be lucky if I can do 1 block in three minutes. And yes, I have the massage therapist lined up for the day after my installation.
What size blocks are you moving? (most important question)
Can you use a landscape wagon to move them?
Do you have a gravel base included in you proposal which will require over excavation and compaction?
"If guns kill people, a spoon made Rosie O'Donnel fat!"
True, the size of the block is important, but for a 2-foot wall I'd assume they're under 50 pounds.
So convenient a thing it is to be a reasonable Creature, since it enables one to find or make a Reason for everything one has a mind to do. --Benjamin Franklin