Retaining Walls
A retaining wall holds back soil that would otherwise push against your foundation or wash out your yard. We build and rebuild retaining walls that are engineered to drain properly and stay put for the long haul.
Retaining Walls in Kansas City
A retaining wall holds back soil that would otherwise push against your foundation or wash out your yard. We build and rebuild retaining walls that are engineered to drain properly and stay put for the long haul.
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Holding Back Soil So It Does Not Hold Against You
A retaining wall is doing structural work: holding a grade change so soil stays where it belongs. On a sloped Kansas City lot, that often means keeping a hillside off your foundation, or keeping a yard from washing down onto a driveway or a neighbor.
Retaining walls fail for one reason more than any other, and it is not the wall material. It is water. Soil behind a wall gets saturated, hydrostatic pressure builds with nowhere to go, and the wall leans, bulges, or gives out. A wall built without drainage behind it is a wall on a timer.
How We Build Retaining Walls
Drainage behind the wall
Gravel backfill and drain line behind the wall so water has a path out instead of building pressure against the back face. This is the part that determines whether the wall lasts, and it is the part that is invisible once the job is done.
Proper base
Excavated and compacted base below grade so the wall is founded on something stable. Walls built directly on unprepared soil settle and lean, and no amount of quality in the wall itself compensates.
Backfill in lifts
Backfilled and compacted in layers rather than dumped, so the soil behind the wall does not settle and leave voids that later become movement.
Height and engineering
Above certain heights, retaining walls need engineering and may need permits. We will tell you if your wall is in that category rather than building it and hoping nobody asks.
Drainage at the top and toe
Surface water directed so it does not pour over the top of the wall or undercut the base. A wall can be built perfectly and still be undermined by where the water lands.
New Wall Or Rebuild?
Signs an existing wall is failing
Leaning or bulging out at the middle, courses shifted out of alignment, soil washing out from behind or through the wall, cracking through the face, or a wall that has visibly moved since you last looked. Failing walls tend to accelerate, because each bit of movement lets in more water.
Rebuild versus repair
A wall that has moved has usually done so because of what is behind it, and what is behind it is not fixable without taking the wall apart. Rebuilding with proper drainage tends to be the durable answer, and we would rather say that than take money for a patch we expect to fail.
What Determines The Cost
We do not publish a price, because a number without seeing your foundation is a guess. Here is what actually moves it, so you know what we are looking at during the free inspection.
- Length and height of the wall, with height driving cost disproportionately
- Material selection
- Excavation and base preparation
- Drainage system behind the wall, which is not the place to economize
- Whether an existing wall has to be demolished and hauled off
- Site access for equipment and material
- Engineering and permitting if the height requires it
Retaining Walls FAQs
Water, more than anything else. Soil behind the wall saturates, pressure builds, and the wall moves. That is why drainage behind the wall matters more than what the wall is made of. A wall without drainage will eventually lose to hydrostatic pressure.
Yes. Gravel backfill and drain line so water has an exit instead of building pressure. It is invisible once the wall is finished, which is exactly why it is the corner most often cut, and it is the corner that determines whether the wall lasts.
It depends on your jurisdiction and the site conditions. Above certain heights, walls require engineering and often permits. We will tell you where your wall falls rather than building first and finding out later.
Yes, and rebuilding is usually the right answer rather than trying to push a failed wall back. The reason it leaned is behind it, and getting to that means taking the wall apart. Rebuilding with proper drainage addresses the cause.
It can, when a slope is directing water and soil pressure at your house. A wall that holds the grade back and drains properly takes load off your foundation. A wall that is failing or draining toward the house does the opposite.
Retaining Walls Across The Metro
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