Walls fail from water, not weight
When a wall leans or bulges, people blame the block. It's almost always water. Piedmont clay holds it, and saturated soil pushes far harder than dry soil.
So the part that matters most is the part you'll never see: clean drainage stone behind every wall, perforated pipe daylighted downhill on anything with height, and a first course buried below grade on compacted stone.
- Gravel drainage layer — never the clay you dug out
- Base course buried and obsessively levelled
- Each course stepped back into the hill
When a wall needs an engineer
Not every wall does, and we'll tell you which one you have. Height changes things — so does what sits above it. A wall holding a driveway or pool deck carries load that changes the math entirely.
Past a certain height we'll spec engineered design and reinforcement. We'd rather lose the job than build something tall that looks fine for two years.
What it costs
Most walls run $6,000 to $35,000.
Price follows height, length and what's above the wall — not just square footage.
- Low garden and seating walls sit at the low end
- Height, tiering and reinforcement raise it
- Failed-wall tear-out adds excavation
