Retaining Walls

Nearly every leaning or cracked wall we're called to replace failed for the same reason: water trapped behind it. Hydrostatic pressure doubles the load a wall carries, and a wall built without a drainage system is quietly fighting a battle it will lose. Our walls treat drainage as half the project.

• Free-draining gravel backfill wrapped in filter fabric — not native soil pushed back against the wall
• Perforated drain pipe at the footing, daylighted or tied to the site drainage system
• Weep holes where the design calls for them, kept clear and intentional
• Compaction in lifts behind the wall so the backfill doesn't settle and pull the wall with it
• Footing sized to the engineer's calculation for the actual soil — not a rule of thumb

In most Orange County and Greater LA cities, a retaining wall over 4 feet measured from the bottom of the footing — or any wall carrying a surcharge like a driveway, pool, or slope above it — requires engineered drawings and a building permit. Some cities set the bar at 3 feet. We handle this for you: our engineer produces the calculations and stamped plans, we file the permit, schedule inspections, and close it out so the wall is documented for resale.

• Structural calculations and stamped plans by a licensed engineer
• Permit application, plan check responses, and inspection scheduling
• Surcharge analysis when driveways, pools, or slopes sit above the wall
• Closed-out permits — documentation that protects the property's value

The structure underneath can be the same; the face of the wall sets the character of the garden. We help you choose based on height, budget, and the architecture of the house.

• Segmental retaining-wall systems — engineered, efficient, ideal for terraces and planted slopes
• CMU core with natural stone veneer or smooth plaster — the most common premium finish
• Board-form concrete — architectural, modern, the formwork grain left as the finish
• Natural stone — dry-stacked character walls and mortared structural faces
• Seat-height site walls — 18-inch walls that double as garden seating around terraces and fire features

The best retaining walls don't read as infrastructure. A slope becomes two usable terraces; a cut becomes a planted bench; a property-line drop becomes a backdrop for lighting and vines. Because we design and build the whole garden — planting, lighting, irrigation, drainage — the wall is planned as part of the composition, not dropped in as a fix.