Build a Retaining Wall for Form and Function

You may want to build a retaining wall to help support your home’s foundation on a downhill side, or you may do it on an uphill side helping to keep erosion in check. Sometimes a retaining wall is to manage a steep pitch on a slope and give some level ground. Not only is mowing the grass on a slope difficult, it can be downright dangerous.

Visit our ideas on landscaping for a slope.

In any situation, a retaining wall may be holding back several tons of weight when the soil is saturated.
For this reason, try to keep the height of your wall to under 3-1/2 feet. That’s the height and soil weight you as a do it yourselfer can manage. If your slope is calling for a taller wall, try terracing it and breaking it down into a series of walls rather than one big tall one.

It is highly important to allow for water to drain through or under a retaining wall. Too much build up of water behind it will cause it to collapse.
There are different materials you can use to build a retaining wall and they vary in cost as well as skill level required to build. One of these should suit you.

A dry stack retaining wall has many natural spaces for water to seep out and gives a very rustic, natural feel to the landscape.

A wood or timber wall is pretty easy to build and the treated lumber is fairly inexpensive too. You can easily build these to allow water to drain through.

Interlocking concrete blocks come in many colors and shapes and are found in every home improvement store. They make them so they can easily make curved walls as well as straight ones. They also make for comfortable seating. retaining wall blocks

A mortared brick or block wall has a neat finished look but is the most labor intensive to build.
If you live in a climate that gets cold in the winter, you’ll have to dig a footing up to a few feet down in some places, to get below the frost line. You will also have to plan in drainage holes since the water cannot easily seep though mortar. brick wall

For stability, any kind of retaining wall should lean into the hill about 1 inch for every 3-4 feet in height. After you’ve decided to build a retaining wall, soften it up a bit by adding some low growing plants or trailing vines that will spill over it.

Check out our landscaping page for other ideas for your yard.

Maybe you’ve got a cozy spot now for a garden arbor. Your yard will be the envy of the neighborhood!

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