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Support for Your Garden – How to Build a Retaining Wall

Retaining walls professional landscape solutions are the perfect solution if you want multiple soil levels in your landscape. They help soil and rocks stay in place, which can make your garden or yard more functional as well as beautiful. However, if you don’t know how to build a retaining wall the right way, it could collapse over the course of just a few years or even months. Fortunately, our team can help! At Landscape Solutions & Design Inc., we have experience creating gorgeous retaining walls that are built to last.

How Retaining Walls Can Work In Your Garden or Yard

One of the most common uses for a retaining wall is simply to keep soil at multiple levels for a more aesthetically pleasing look. However, retaining walls can also have multiple other functions:

  • Stopping erosion along a water feature you’ve added to your landscape or a natural stream or pond
  • Preventing soil from washing to areas where it shouldn’t be, such as a sidewalk or parking lot
  • Adding a physical boundary, such as between your yard and a natural wooded area
  • Creating a raised bed for gardening purposes
  • Adding steps to a steep slope, which can make an awkward landscape more functional
  • Making a steep slope easier to mow

No matter what purpose a retaining wall serves in your landscape, it’s important that they are built properly. Without the correct construction, a retaining wall will simply collapse under the weight of the soil and pressure built up from water. You need an experienced team to build your wall. That’s where we come in. We’d love to design and build a retaining wall that perfectly fits into your landscape design.

Retaining Wall Materials

Our primary goal when building a retaining wall is to ensure it performs its function. However, we also want the wall to be aesthetically pleasing, matching with the rest of your landscape. For retaining walls, we can use several materials including timber, concrete, masonry, and stone.

This is also a great chance to completely change the look of your landscape with other features as well, such as patios, sidewalks, and other types of hardscapes. We’ll design your garden or yard based on your specific needs, style, and budget.

One new innovative product we recently have been able to offer is TufDek. This is a waterproof vinyl decking material that comes in Cool Step Colors, which offer a 50% cooler surface. It’s the perfect choice for those hot summer days. We are currently the only dealer in North Carolina that can install TufDek products. If you love this material for your hardscapes, we can design a retaining wall that complements it perfectly.

Design Ideas – How to Build a Retaining Wall You Love

Even if your retaining wall is purely functional, there’s no reason you can’t love the design and think of it as a beautiful addition to your yard. We have experience building retaining walls with special features such as the following:

  • Multi-level retaining walls: Large retaining walls can hold back several tons of soil. However, with multi-level retaining walls you alleviate that pressure so the wall will last longer. Of course, these walls also often flow better with the natural look of your landscape. They are a great option if you want a retaining wall that disappears into your garden as much as possible.
  • Water features: Your retaining wall can also serve as a fountain or other water feature. This is an especially attractive option if you want to use natural stone of your retaining wall.
  • Retaining wall seats: Yes, you can incorporate built-in seating into your retaining wall. Seat walls can actually make your retaining wall safer, since the bench serves as a barrier from the edge of a retaining wall. It prevents you and your family members from accidentally walking off the edge.
  • Lighted retaining walls: When we build your new retaining wall, we can incorporate outdoor lighting. This special touch is both beautiful and functional. We can install embedded lights, up lighting, shadow lighting, and more.

Our goal is to design a new retaining wall that you absolutely love. What works for one client doesn’t work for another. So, before starting your project, we’ll talk to you about your needs and style to make sure the retaining wall fits perfectly into your landscape.

FAQs about Retaining Walls

If you have questions about retaining walls, we are happy to answer them. You can contact us any time! Here are a few frequently asked questions we hear about how to build a retaining wall.

Do I need a permit to build a retaining wall?

It depends on your location and the size of the wall. We are well versed in requirements for retaining walls throughout the North Carolina Triad and Charlotte area. If you need a permit, we’ll handle that process for you.

Can I build a retaining wall myself?

Yes, but unless you understand the structural engineering needs of a retaining wall, we don’t recommend it. When you hire a professional team to build your wall, you can rest assured that it is safe and will last for years to come.

Will a retaining wall help with flooding issues?

In some cases, a retaining wall can help if you’ve been experiencing flooding. It depends on the cause of the flooding. We can analyze your landscape and let you know if a retaining wall is a good solution for flooding problems.

If you have more questions about retaining walls, click the button above to request a free quote today.