new retaining wall construction
Most new walls here are doing one of three jobs: terracing a hillside back yard into usable ground, levelling a yard that falls away behind the house, or holding a cut so a patio or driveway can sit flat. What decides the build is not the look, it is the load. We size the base, the reinforcement depth and the drainage to the slope above the wall and the soil we actually find when we dig, not to a standard detail.
New walls here are usually doing one of three jobs: terracing a hillside back yard into ground you can actually use, levelling a yard that falls away behind the house, or holding a cut so a patio, drive or garage pad can sit flat. Each puts a different load on the wall, and the load is what drives the design.
Two shorter tiers frequently beat one tall wall. They cost less, they read better on a slope, and they keep the project under the height at which municipal review and an engineer's drawing come into play.
Most of a wall's working life is decided before the first course is visible. The base is excavated to bearing and compacted in lifts. Geogrid goes back into the hill in layers where the slope above calls for it. Clean stone, filter fabric and a daylighted outlet go in behind the face as the wall rises, not afterwards.
On tight lots, getting equipment to the wall line is often the hard part, and drainage is quoted with the wall rather than as an extra. Material choice follows the site: block for most residential runs.
New construction is steadiest in Upper St. Clair and Cranberry Township, with terracing and driveway work across Fox Chapel, Bethel Park, Mt. Lebanon and Pittsburgh.
How long does it take? Straightforward residential walls usually run a few days once the site is open. Access is often the variable, not the wall.
These usually come up on the same job, and we can handle them in the same visit:
Engineered block systems, geogrid reinforcement and a drainage course built in behind. The workhorse residential wall.
Learn More →French drains, wall drains, downspout routing, swales and regrading. Often the actual fix when a wall is only the symptom.
Learn More →Cut, fill, haul-off and site access on tight hillside lots where reaching the wall is half the job.
Learn More →Free - No Obligation
Send a few details and we'll come look at it. Photos help - a picture of a lean or a crack tells us more than a paragraph.