Real Estate Broker · Pueblo, CO · Member since 2013 · 368 posts · 303 votes
Hi BP,
I'm interested in a SFR for myself and have noted the largest problem is the retaining wall pushing into the back of the house as seen below:
My question is has anyone dealt with this before? I sent this picture to a contractor but figured there are plenty of people on here who have experience with this as well, or have contracting experience. Backhoe would be tricky to impossible to get in this area I'd imagine due to slope of hill and tightness of alley between houses. But that's why I'm inquiring. The wall has not caused any visible damage to the inside of the house. Washer/dryer/HWT located directly inside that area.
Other than the wall, there are a couple pieces of missing gutter and fascia. The house is older (1900) but looks ok on the inside (previous rehab done), with some cosmetic repairs required.
I'd love to do VA financing on this one but that doesn't look like it will fly. Probably looking at conventional.
From the pic, it looks like you have 5' of dirt on the other side of the retaining wall. This isn't something for a homeowner to attempt on their own....it's a good way to get killed or hurt. I'd suggest you get several local contractors to come out and take a look at it. Check with you local government (without giving the address) to see if this is something that needs to be permitted or not. In most major metro areas, you will need a permit for this but I don't know your part of the world.
No one goes through the time and expense to build a retaining wall like that...so they had a reason for it. You want to know the reason before you take it down. Railroad ties usually last about 25 to 30 years. The stacking concrete retaining blocks you can get at home depot can be a good replacement. Ask some of the neighbors and see what they can tell you about it. You might want to post on thumbtack.com in your area to see what kind of response you might get from contractors.
Hey guys! Contractor said its impossible to get any machine down there, that it would need to be done by hand entirely. He said 2, 4-foot walls would work with vers-lok bricks. This would also avoid engineer stamps. He quoted me a price of 11k for the total job.
Sadly, however, the property ended up going under contract a day or so before I had the contractor have a look but the listing agent never updated the MLS
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@Ryan Watson - I don't recall a specific timeline, though I do remember being told they would finish before closing. I'll take a drive-by one day and check it out this summer to see if anything was done to it
@Chris Pasternak one problem with working with steep slopes is stabilization. If the slope behind this house is very steep digging into the toe of the slope can destabilize the slope. In other words dirt will only stack so steep before it flows downhill, if you dig out the bottom it could cause the entire hill to start flowing downhill. That is what is happening to that wall. I would only have an expert who has insurance work on it. Drive around the hillsides of Vail Colorado and you will see many examples of this. Some houses have started moving downhill the house eventually breaks apart from this.