River lots: steep, shady and wet at the bottom
The streets that run down toward the Catawba, around the Riverfront area and toward the Whitewater Center, are some of the prettiest lots in Gaston County and some of the hardest to build on. They're steep, they're wooded, and every hard rain carries a little more of the yard downhill.
That's retaining wall country. A wall cut into the slope gives you a level spot for a patio or a lawn, and stone steps give you a safe way down to the water. Every wall gets clean drainage stone behind it and, where the height calls for it, pipe that carries water out to daylight. We route walls and paths around big trees instead of cutting through their roots.
Access is usually the real puzzle. A compact track loader fits where a full-size machine won't, and sometimes the material goes down the hill a wheelbarrow at a time. We'll tell you up front which kind of job yours is.
Downtown and the older streets
Mount Holly grew up as a mill town, and the streets around downtown still have that feel: smaller lots, front porches, mature trees and walkways that were poured or laid a long time ago. The work here is mostly about bringing the front of the house back. That means a new walkway, steps that don't wobble, clean beds along the foundation and some lighting so the porch looks as good at night as it does in the day.
New construction on the edges
The newer neighborhoods have the opposite problem. The yard is a blank slate on hard, compacted construction soil, and the grade was set to get water off the lot quickly, which often leaves one corner that stays wet. A patio off the back slab, privacy planting along the fence and a drainage fix for that corner usually turn a builder's yard into a finished one.
What we're usually doing in Mount Holly
- Retaining walls and terraces on steep river-side lots
- Natural stone and block steps down a slope
- Paver patios, fire pits and seating walls
- Front walkways and foundation beds on older homes
- Drainage fixes, French drains and erosion control
- Landscape lighting on walls, steps and walkways
Stanley, Lowell and Belmont nearby
If you're just over the line in Stanley, Lowell or Belmont, you're on the same route. Text us a photo and we'll get out to look at it quickly.
