Retaining Walls in Anderson, IN

Walls that hold the hill

A retaining wall has one job: hold back the ground and the water pushing on it. Most failed walls failed because whoever built them skipped the drainage behind it. We build walls that drain correctly, so they're still standing straight in twenty years.

What we build

• Block walls. Clean, strong, and cost-effective.
• Natural stone. For the look, hand-set.
• Poured concrete. For the tall ones and the heavy loads.
• Segmental block. Interlocking units for curves and terraces.

Why they fail, and how we don't

Water builds up behind a wall and pushes. A wall without proper drainage and a solid base leans, then bulges, then goes. We build in the gravel backfill and drainage that keeps that pressure off, on a base that won't settle. It's the part you can't see that keeps the part you can see standing.

How it goes

We look at the slope, the drainage, and what you want it to do, then give you a free estimate. Then we build it to last.

What keeps a wall standing is behind it

A retaining wall holds back tons of soil, and when that soil is wet it pushes even harder. The walls that lean, bulge, and finally fail almost always went for the same reason: whoever built them skipped the drainage and the base. Water builds up behind the wall with nowhere to go, freezes, and shoves. So the part that matters most is the part you can't see. We set the wall on a compacted stone base that won't settle, backfill with clean gravel so water drains down and out instead of pooling, and run drain pipe where the wall calls for it.

We build in block, natural stone, poured concrete, and segmental interlocking units. Block is clean and cost-effective, stone looks like it grew there, poured handles the tall loads, and segmental units curve and terrace for landscaped yards. Which one's right depends on the height, the slope, and the look you're after, and taller walls need engineering and the right materials to do safely. We'll walk you through it.

On taller walls we step the base into the slope and batter the face slightly back into the hill, so gravity works with the wall instead of against it. It's a small detail most weekend builds skip, and it's a big part of why a wall we set is still standing straight years later.

Retaining walls lean on the same stone-and-block craft as the rest of our masonry work around Anderson. Tell us what the slope's doing and we'll come take a look. The estimate's free.

Frequently Asked Questions