Concrete retaining walls in Duluth MN - a wall that drains and holds your yard

Usually you're calling because a hillside is washing out, an old timber or block wall has started to lean, or you want a flat spot where the yard drops off. The price moves with the height and length of the wall, how much digging and backfill the ground needs, how easy it is to get forms and a truck in, and whether an old wall has to come out first. The schedule turns on the weather, the wait before we can backfill and any permit your wall needs, and at the estimate visit I'll look at your site and walk you through what you'd be paying for. We're based in Duluth and work in Superior, Hermantown, Cloquet and the cities around them, and if you need a way down the slope we can plan concrete steps into the same job.

Most wall trouble starts with water trapped behind it, so the first thing I figure out is where your water comes from and where it can go, and our quote names the backfill and the drainage plan right next to the concrete. Before I settle on how to build it, I also look at where road salt and runoff will reach the wall. Then our crew digs out for the footing, the wide base the wall stands on, sets the forms and the rebar, the steel that holds the concrete together against the push of the soil, and pours the footing and the wall. We let the concrete cure, the wait while it gains strength, before any dirt goes against it, and then we set the drain along the base, place the backfill in layers and pack the top so the yard ends up where you wanted it.

A wall that cuts a level spot into a hill often becomes the edge of a patio or a pool area, and we pour concrete pool decks so the deck and the wall work off the same drainage plan. When the wall holds the ground beside a garage, a shop or a walkout, the slab inside is often next, and we handle concrete floor installation too.

In Duluth, the city's Construction Services office requires a building permit for any structure, and the exception is a retaining wall up to four feet tall, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, that holds up no surcharge, which is extra weight on the ground behind it like a driveway, a parked car or more slope. So the height of your wall and what sits above it decide the question, and I'll tell you which side of that line yours lands on once I've measured. The city puts the permit on the owner or the contractor doing the work, so when your wall needs one, we pull it and book the inspections, and if you'd rather apply yourself, I'll tell you what the city will want to see from us.

Salt is the other thing I watch for here, because one maker's guide says dry-cast concrete wall blocks can break down from freezing and thawing with de-icing salt and cold, a concern it names for northern states that use those salts. That's the reason for the salt and runoff check I mentioned above, and we see the same plow spray and steep yards on jobs in Hermantown and Superior.