Most retaining-wall failures are not sudden at all; the warning signs were simply missed. Our engineers read those signs early and tell you honestly whether a wall can be saved or has reached the end of its service life.
Inspecting Existing Walls
We check for the three problems that travel together: leaning or bulging, cracking, and the blocked drainage that usually causes both. The pressure of saturated soil behind a wall is immense, and a wall that cannot shed water is a wall on a countdown.
Repair or Replace
Some walls need only improved drainage and minor repair; others are past the point where repair makes sense. We give you the honest call and the reasoning behind it, the same way we approach forensic inspections.
Why Retaining Walls Fail
Most retaining-wall failures trace back to water and undersized design: drainage that was never built behind the wall, backfill that holds moisture, or a wall asked to hold more soil than it was engineered for. The result is bulging, leaning, or cracking that only gets worse with each wet season. Caught early, it is a design correction; ignored, it becomes a rebuild.
Designed and Sealed for Permitting
We inspect existing walls and design new ones with drainage detailed from the first drawing, every plan sealed and ready for permitting. Because water is so often the culprit, retaining-wall work pairs closely with our drainage and grading evaluations, and the wall itself is evaluated with the same load-path discipline as any structural assessment.
Designing New Walls
For new construction on sloped or terraced lots, we design walls sized for the actual soil load and water pressure they will face, with drainage detailed from the first drawing. Every design is sealed and ready for permitting.