Concrete retaining walls in Tacoma WA - a wall that drains and holds your slope

Most people call when a bank keeps washing onto the lawn or patio, or an old wall has started to lean, and the first thing I want to know is how tall the wall needs to be and what sits above it. Height and length set most of the price, and so do how easily we can get equipment and concrete to the spot, whether an old wall has to come out first, and any curves, terraces or decorative face you want. The schedule turns mostly on whether the city wants a permit for your wall and on the weather, because the concrete has to cure, which is the time it needs to harden and gain strength, before we put soil back against it. Once I've seen your slope, you get the estimate in writing so you can take your time with it.

Water behind a wall is what I worry about most, so we plan where it'll go before anything else gets built. Then we dig down to firm ground and compact the base, because a wall settles with whatever it's sitting on. Our crew forms the footing with rebar, the steel bars inside that help the concrete stand up to the soil pushing on it, and then forms and pours the stem, the upright part of the wall. We set a path behind it that carries water down and away, backfill once the concrete has cured and clean up. Before we pack up, we talk with you about keeping the drains clear later on, since a plugged drain brings the pressure right back. If the budget gets tight, I'd rather spend it on the base and the drainage than on a fancy face, because nobody sees the base on day one but it's what keeps the wall standing.

A new wall often opens up flat ground, and a lot of people use it for concrete pool decks, so we plan the wall's drainage to keep water off whatever goes in front of it. When the wall is part of a lower room or shop cut into the hill, our concrete floor installation work can finish that space.

In Tacoma, building permits come from Tacoma Planning and Development Services, and a wall may not need one only when it meets every one of these together. It's four feet or less from the bottom of the footing to the top, it has flat ground on both the upper and lower sides, no driveway, building or fence puts weight on it, and it sits on private property. On a sloped lot, look hard at that flat-ground condition, and if your wall misses any of them, check with the city at 253-591-5030 or 747 Market Street, 3rd Floor, before you plan around skipping a permit. A wall that reaches into the street right-of-way first needs a Street Occupancy Permit from the city's Real Property Services. Before work starts, we check which office covers your address and what it'll want to see, and when your wall calls for a permit we handle the paperwork, or tell you what to bring if it's one you have to get yourself.

The city also has critical areas rules for building in places like landslide hazard areas and floodways, which can matter when a wall goes into a steep bank. The state maps slides that have already happened, but a blank spot on that map doesn't mean the hazard isn't there, so I'll ask what movement you've noticed on your slope. We're based in Tacoma and work in the cities around it, and we see the same kind of steep backyards on jobs in South Hill and University Place.