Retaining Walls in Dunwoody, GA

Many Dunwoody homes sit on wooded, sloping lots, so a lot of yards depend on a retaining wall. We build new walls, repair old ones and fix the sunken slabs and walks that often come with them. Here is what we see around Dunwoody and how a visit works.

What Dunwoody lots ask of a retaining wall

A lot of Dunwoody was built on rolling, wooded ground. Plenty of homes have a slope somewhere: a backyard that drops toward a creek, a driveway cut into a hill, or a side yard held up by an old timber wall. The soil is mostly red clay. Clay holds water, swells when it is wet and shrinks as it dries. That movement keeps pushing on anything built to hold it back. Summer thunderstorms can drop a lot of rain in a short time, so a wall has to hold back far more weight after a storm than on a dry day. The mature oaks and poplars that make the neighborhoods pleasant also send roots into wall joints and under paving. A big tree close to a wall changes how the soil behind it behaves. Winters are mild, but a few hard freezes are enough to open small cracks in concrete and mortar.

Signs your wall needs attention

The best time to look at your wall is the day after a heavy rain. Things worth noticing: the top leaning outward, even slightly; blocks that have slid forward or stepped out of line; a bulge in the middle of a run; water or soil coming through the face or out at the bottom; soggy ground at the base; cracks that get wider from one season to the next; timbers that are soft when you press a screwdriver into them. Most of these come back to water. If a wall has no working drain behind it, or the drain stone has filled up with clay over the years, water sits against the back of the wall and pushes. The next most common cause is a wall built too shallow at the base, or a taller wall built without grid fabric tying it into the hill. When a walkway or patio slab sinks, the soil underneath has usually washed out or settled.

Services we offer in Dunwoody

Retaining Wall Installation covers new walls, from a low wall around a garden bed to a wall that gives you a flat, usable yard on a slope. Block Retaining Walls use interlocking concrete units. They suit most walls and give a neat, even face. Boulder Retaining Walls use large natural stone and look at home on wooded lots. Timber Retaining Walls cost less up front and work well for low walls, though wood does not last as long as stone or block in our wet clay. Retaining Wall Repair can mean resetting a section that has shifted, adding drainage that was never there, or rebuilding the part that failed. Emergency Retaining Wall Repair is for a wall that is failing fast, such as a section that slumped after a storm and is putting a driveway, fence or slab at risk. We do not offer after-hours service, so call us during our hours and we will put it at the front of the line. Concrete Leveling and Mudjacking lift sunken slabs back into place by pumping material underneath them, which is often cheaper than tearing them out. Sidewalk Repair deals with walks that have cracked, heaved over a root or settled into a trip hazard.

Repair or replace

If the trouble is in one section and the rest of the wall is plumb and solid, repair usually makes sense. We take down the damaged part, fix the drainage and base behind it, and rebuild it with the original material where we can. If the whole wall leans, if the timbers are rotting along the full length, or if the wall was simply too short or too shallow for the slope, patching will only buy time. In that case we will tell you so and explain what a new wall would involve. Slabs work the same way. A slab that has sunk in one piece can usually be lifted. A slab broken into many pieces is usually better replaced.

What a visit looks like

We start by walking the wall with you. We look at how it leans, where water runs off your roof and yard, what is growing nearby and what the wall is holding up. We check the face and the base, look for weep holes or a drain outlet, and probe the soil at the bottom. If you have a sunken walk or patio, we look at that too, since the cause is often the same. Then we go through what we found in plain terms, what we would do and why. If you want a written estimate, we prepare one so you can compare options and decide in your own time. Nothing gets dug up on the first visit.

How to book

To set up a visit in Dunwoody, call us at (404) 010-0005 or email info@retainingwallsandysprings.com. Our hours are Monday to Friday, 7:00 AM to 7:00 PM, and Saturday, 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM. We are closed on Sunday. It helps to send a few photos of the wall or slab, ideally one taken straight on and one from the end of the wall so we can see any lean. Let us know if anything has changed recently, such as new cracks after a storm. You can also use the Request a Wall Estimate button on this page, and we will get back to you to arrange a time.

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