Retaining Walls in Chicagoland

Retaining walls fail for one reason far more often than any other: water. Saturated soil behind a wall weighs dramatically more than dry soil and pushes with hydrostatic pressure the wall was never designed for, and in a climate that freezes, that trapped water expands as ice and levers the wall forward a fraction of an inch every winter. The bulging, leaning, separated walls you see all over Chicagoland neighborhoods are almost never a failure of the blocks. They are a failure of the drainage stone, the filter fabric, and the drain line behind them.

We build poured concrete and segmental block retaining walls across the greater Chicagoland area — walls that make a sloped yard usable, terraced walls that break a long grade into workable levels, walls that stop a bank washing into a driveway, and low garden and planter walls that are really landscaping. Every one of them gets a compacted base below frost-susceptible fill, free-draining stone behind the face, separation fabric so that stone does not silt up, and a drain line with somewhere real to go.

What we build

• Segmental block wallsEngineered modular block in the color and texture you choose, set on a compacted leveling pad.
• Poured concrete wallsFormed and reinforced cast-in-place walls where the height, load, or look calls for it.
• Terraced and tiered wallsA long slope broken into shorter walls with planted benches between, which is often better than one tall wall.
• Erosion controlHolding a bank that is washing out onto a driveway, walkway, patio, or neighboring property.
• Geogrid reinforcementSoil reinforcement layered back into the fill where wall height and surcharge require it.
• Drainage systemClean drainage stone, separation fabric, and a perforated drain line daylighted or tied to an outlet.
• Caps, steps, and returnsFinished cap course, integrated steps through the wall, and returns into the existing grade.
• Backfill and restorationCompacted backfill in lifts, final grading, and the surrounding area left tidy.