Retaining Wall 101: Benefits, Design, and Maintenance

The retaining wall is one multifunctional yet highly overlooked aspect of both landscaping and hardscaping. Whether you’re looking to control erosion in your yard, make your yard’s slopes more usable, or simply add a little bit of visual interest, a retaining wall can do all of those things and more. Here’s an introduction to the benefits of retaining walls, how to design one that works for your space, and how to maintain it post-installation. Retaining Walls: Why Do We Need Them? At its core, a retaining wall is a structure that holds back soil or water on a landscape to prevent it from collapsing. While they’re designed to be functional, they can also simply be decorative; if you want some visual interest in your yard, you can build a retaining wall that acts as a raised garden. Common materials used to build them are concrete, stone, brick, wood, and gabion–as you can see, there’s quite a variety, and each serves its own purpose and provides a different aesthetic. The material you use will depend on your goals for the wall. There are different types of retaining walls, the four most common being gravity walls, cantilevered walls, anchored walls, and sheet piling walls. Again, the type of wall you build depends on your property's goals. For example, sheet piling walls are great for limited space, and anchored retaining walls are great for areas with heavy loads. These are the four main benefits of installing a retaining wall on your property:

1. Erosion control and soil stabilization
2. Creating usable land on slopes
3. Enhancing aesthetic appeal and adding value to the property
4. Providing structural support for landscaping

How to Design a Retaining Wall That Works For You Many things go into designing the right retaining wall for your space, so the first thing to consider is your primary goal for the retaining wall. Assess your yard:

• Do you have a hill you’re trying to make more functional?
• Are you struggling with soil erosion or stabilization?
• Do you need a retaining wall for structural support for other landscaping or hardscaping features?
• Is this a way to make your yard more beautiful?

Once you’ve narrowed down your goal, it’s time to get into the nitty-gritty. Once again, you should assess your yard and decide on the exact location of the wall. You need to know how long it will be, how tall it will be, and whether there is anything in the way that you’ll need to remove (everything from minor debris to boulders). Next, you’ll need to consider design principles. What is the drainage like in your yard, and will you need to install a drainage system near the location of your wall? Drainage is crucial for optimal retaining wall performance, as improper drainage leads to collapse. You’ll also want to consider your soil type. Retaining Walls, Soil Types, and Aesthetics Different retaining walls work better with certain types of soil. For example, anchored retaining walls work great for rocky soils, and sheet piling retaining walls work great with excessively moist soils (though you still want to install a drainage system). You also need to consider the load-bearing capacity you’ll need. If you plan to put a patio on your retaining wall, you’ll need a retaining wall type with high load-bearing capacity, like a concrete wall. Lastly, you’ll want to consider aesthetics. While style, color, and texture are important (and fun) factors to think about, they’re not the only ones. Get creative–retaining walls can be used as seating, planters, or other decorative features. Chat with a professional hardscaping company to help you make your retaining wall more multi-functional. Maintain & Care for Your Retaining Wall Maintenance is crucial for optimal retaining wall performance. That being said, overall, they don’t require much. You want to ensure you’re performing regular inspections for cracks, bulges, and draining issues, as those need to be addressed as soon as possible. But if you keep up with cleaning, debris removal, and repairing minor damages, the bigger issues shouldn’t be a problem. Anchors or tiebacks can be installed to reinforce your wall, such as steel bars, concrete, geosynthetics, or soil nails, depending on the type of retaining wall you have. It’s also good practice to ensure that the foundation is built on compacted soil and to install a french drain behind the wall for drainage. If you need to fill a crack or gap, you can use concrete repair epoxy or a sand and cement mix. When it comes to bulging, it could be the result of improper anchoring or footing, overloading, or hydrostatic pressure. The best way to fix a bulge depends on the reason for its existence, but here are some things you can try:

• Add anchors or tiebacks to relieve pressure and prevent further movement
• Extend the base’s footing
• Improve drainage
• Rebuild the base of the wall
• Backfill with compact dirt to prevent future leaning

Ultimately, the biggest goal of retaining wall maintenance is to ensure that it’s stable. And with frequent inspections, you can keep on top of it before little problems become big problems. Conclusion Any way you can make your yard more multi-functional is a win. Retaining walls can help you do that while also providing structural integrity and enhancing the beauty of your landscape. Now that you know more about retaining wall functions, you can connect with a hardscaping professional to bring your yard back to life.