A retaining wall on an Auckland section is a small dam. August proves it. Clay that sat quiet in February turns to porridge, water sits behind the blocks, and by October the face has a belly you can see from the deck.

People ask for a repoint. Repointing a wall that is moving is decorating a hinge. The mortar is not the problem. The problem is water that had nowhere to go, a footing that was never sized for this bank, or cores that were never filled where the engineer marked them.

Mr Singh Brick & Block Laying Ltd does this work from Sunnyvale as a Licensed Building Practitioner firm under Sandeep Singh. The phone is 020 410 79568. The useful call is not “can you make it look straight.” It is “here is the height at the low corner, here is what is uphill of it, here is whether anyone dug behind it last year.”

What you can see from the lawn

A straight wall with a rust tear under the cap usually has steel sitting wet. Open cores, a coping that ponds, weep holes painted shut. Moss where a drain should daylight. A step-crack that widens after a dry week means movement, not a bad jointing tool.

Height is the conversation people leave too late. A “small garden step” becomes 1.2 metres once the excavator has finished the low corner. Consent, surcharge from a driveway, and a fence on top all change the job. A brick and block laying company Auckland crews should stop and say so. A cheap quote will not, and then the council does.

The hidden third

The blocks are the visible third. Behind them you want drainage metal that is actually metal, not clay shoved back in, a coil that falls to daylight or a pit, and fabric so the clay does not turn the gravel into pudding. Cores filled where the drawing says, with the bar the engineer specified. Skip that and you have built a hollow fence that looks like a wall until the next northerly rain.

West Auckland clay and a sandy ridge in Howick are not the same ground. A standard detail from another site is how you pay twice. If the wall is already leaning, do not load the top with extra soil to hide it. Reduce the surcharge. Keep water off the back. Then get a layer and, above a modest height, an engineer on site together.

What to send before anyone prices it

Photos in morning light. Height at the high end and the low end. What sits above it — lawn, drive, neighbour’s fill. Whether you want a fence on top. Access for a truck. 15 Waari Avenue is the yard, not the site. The site is what gets priced.

Spring is when everyone wants the bank finished before summer visitors. The crews who can do the drain properly are booked by the people who called in September. Call 020 410 79568 with the real height. A brick and block laying company Auckland job that includes the hidden third is the one still vertical in three Augusts.