Concrete Retaining Walls in Paris and Brantford

The details

A retaining wall holds back soil so you can have a flat yard, a level driveway or a usable patio on a sloped lot. In Paris, Brantford and the County of Brant, we build them as poured concrete on a footing, with steel inside and drainage behind.

Poured concrete walls

A poured wall is one solid piece of reinforced concrete. We dig to firm ground, pour a footing below the frost line, then form the wall and set the rebar before the pour. Poured walls make sense where you want a straight, clean face, a big change in grade, or a wall that is part of a structure, like the side of a ramp or a raised patio.

Drainage is half the wall

Most walls that fail were not drained. Water collects in the soil behind the wall, freezes and pushes. We lay perforated pipe in clear stone along the back of the footing and backfill with free-draining stone so water can escape. A pipe outlet or weep holes let it out at the low end.

Block walls

Not every wall needs to be poured. Segmental block walls stack interlocking blocks on a packed base, and they suit garden beds and lower slopes. Our sister company, Cutting Edge Excavation, builds block walls, and a 2024 customer gave them five stars for a retaining wall install. We can tell you which type fits your yard and budget.

Taller walls and engineering

Once a wall gets past about 1 metre, the forces get serious. Those walls usually need an engineer’s design, and some need a building permit. We build to the stamped drawings and can point you to an engineer if you do not have one.

Planning the grade

A wall changes how water moves across your yard. We look at where water runs now and where it will run after the wall goes in. Often the wall is part of a larger regrade, and our excavation crew handles that side of the job.