Top Retaining Walls Christchurch builds schist retaining walls in Christchurch for owners who want the most refined natural stone finish available in the South Island. Schist splits into flat layers, so it stacks into tight horizontal courses with very little mortar showing, and the colour runs through warm greys, golds and rusty browns.
There are two ways to build this. A solid schist wall is a genuine stone structure, laid course by course with the stone doing the retaining. A faced wall uses a concrete block or poured wall behind, with schist laid over the front as a veneer.
Faced walls cost less and go higher, because the structure is doing the engineering and the stone is doing the looking. Solid schist walls have a depth and irregularity that a veneer never quite matches. We will show you both and let you decide.
| Stone | South Island schist, flat layered |
|---|---|
| Build options | Solid stone wall, or schist veneer over block or poured concrete |
| Colour | Warm greys, golds, rusty browns, varies by batch |
| Jointing | Tight courses, lime bagged joints available for a heritage look |
| Labour | Hand laid by a stonemason, the main cost driver |
| Price band | Highest of the wall types we build |
| Drainage | Full metal, coil and geotextile system behind |
Schist is the stone of the Central Otago goldfields cottages, and that association gives it a settled, heritage feeling that new stone rarely has. Canterbury suppliers stock it alongside local basalt and limestone, so it is easy to get here.
It suits older Christchurch streets particularly well. Around Fendalton, Merivale and Cashmere, where the housing stock and the mature planting are both established, a schist wall looks like it predates the garden.
Labour, almost entirely. A stonemason selects and places each piece, works the joints, and keeps the courses running true. Natural stone walls in New Zealand commonly start around a thousand dollars a lineal metre and go up from there, and schist sits at the higher end of natural stone.
If the budget will not stretch to solid schist, a schist face over block gets you most of the look for a good deal less.
Every wall we build gets drainage. At least 300mm of clean free draining metal, a perforated coil at the base running to a real outlet, and geotextile over the top so silt cannot block it. It is not an optional line on our quotes.
Not as a structure. For a tall or loaded wall we build block or poured concrete behind and face it in schist, so the concrete does the structural work.
Mostly Central Otago and the wider South Island. Canterbury landscape suppliers carry it alongside local basalt, limestone and river rock.
Yes, and it looks superb. A short schist wall around a courtyard is a very good use of a small budget for premium stone.
Our old wall was rotten right through and leaning into the neighbour's place. They pulled the lot out, put proper drainage behind the new one and had it finished in three days. Swept the site clean every afternoon before they left too. Tidiest crew we have ever had here by a long way.
They sorted the consent, which was the bit I was dreading. Dealt with the council so I never had to, and kept me in the loop the whole way through. The driveway sits right above it and has not shifted a millimetre.
Steep section, shocking access, and they still made it look easy. They suggested two smaller walls instead of one big one, which saved us thousands in engineering fees. The terrace in between is now my favourite part of the whole garden.
Call [PHONE] or answer three quick questions. The site visit and the written quote cost you nothing.
