Landscaping & Excavation | What You Didn’t Know About Retaining Walls
Creating a functional and beautiful retaining wall is more than just stacking stones or bricks. It’s an art that combines engineering, aesthetics, and an understanding of a landscape. For homeowners looking to enhance their outdoor space, finding a contractor who can deliver both form and function is crucial.
Today, we’re thrilled to have Cullen Linkenheimer with Missing Link Landscaping and Excavation with us. With years of experience and a keen eye for detail, Cullen and his team have transformed numerous landscapes with their stunning retaining walls. In this interview, Cullen will share his insights on what makes a retaining wall not just a structural necessity, but a beautiful addition.
Primary Purposes of a Retaining Wall
So, Cullen, let’s start by having you explain the primary purposes of a retaining wall and why a homeowner might need one.
“Yeah, so the primary purpose of a retaining wall, one, is obviously erosion. You’ve got a hillside that’s eroding, and all the rain and stuff is eating away at it. You need to stop that erosion. A wall is a good way to control that.
“Another one may be to extend space, such as in a backyard or in a driveway. At least here in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, we have a lot of hills. If you have a driveway, you know you have a hillside next to it, but you want to extend your space so you can enjoy it. A retaining wall is also a good solution for that as well.
“It also controls water too. Again, back to the erosion—if you have a wall, you can divert the water that’s coming off the hill and lead it somewhere else, and use it somewhere else in the yard. Keep it away from your home. You never want water going towards your home; you always want to divert it away.
So those are pretty much three big reasons for a wall. On top of that, they’re aesthetically pleasing as well. They last the test of time. They’re made out of stone, concrete, all different types of materials. It’s more appealing for your house, helps you have a bigger space, and can even help you down the road when you’re going to sell your home as well.”
Designing for Function and Aesthetics
“Beautiful, that’s great. Now, what are some of the key factors to consider when designing a retaining wall that is both functional and aesthetic?”
“Some of the key factors you’ve got to keep in mind is, one, where’s the location? How high up are we going with the wall? The height’s going to determine the height and the soil of what we’re working with. That will determine pretty much what type of block you can use, how to build the integrity of the wall, and it will pretty much determine how the wall should be built.”
Ensuring Durability in Different Weather Conditions
“Great. Now, how do you ensure that a retaining wall will be durable and stand the test of time, especially in different weather conditions?”
“Yeah, so here in Pittsburgh, you know, we have all four seasons. Lately, it’s been straight rain, and we get the frost as well. Some of the biggest issues with the soil up north here is one: freeze and thaw. You need solid ground when building on top of a wall. You can either make a concrete pad, or you need to dig down deep enough for the frost line and start at the base. Just like building a home, the base is the most important factor. If you do not have a good base and a strong base, the wall will fail on you.
“For the test of time, as well as proper drainage behind the wall, you don’t want to backfill the wall with dirt because there’s nowhere for the water to go. Drainage on walls is very big. If you don’t have proper drainage, what ends up happening is the wall will end up leaning, pushing, falling forward as soon as we get a heavy rain, and that starts to freeze. Think of it just like the roads here. It freezes and thaws; everything contracts and expands. So, you’ve got to keep that in mind when building a wall.”
Planning and Construction Process
“Okay, can you walk us through the process of planning and construction of a retaining wall from start to finish?”
“Yes, so planning out the wall is pretty simple. You’re going to want to locate exactly where you want the wall. For example, if you have an erosion control issue or something like that, find your location. We’ll take it back a couple of feet from there to give us enough room off the wall to backfill it with stone.
“Once you find your location and know exactly where you want to put the wall, you go into the material side of what type of stone you want. There are so many different options of stone out there that the customer can go to these supply yards and different manufacturers. We can give them a list of stones to pick from, and they can visually see the stone. We can take that stone they want and make their vision come true from there.”
Recommended Materials and Their Impact
“Now, speaking of the materials, what materials do you recommend for retaining walls, and how do they impact the overall look and the longevity of the wall, especially in the area you’re in—Springdale, Fox Chapel, New Kensington, all of those?”
“Yeah, so the biggest, I guess the two biggest materials that we see when it comes to these retaining walls: one, most people usually know this one, it’s Versalok. Versalok is a very common stone here in the area. It’s made out of concrete. They have preset pins in them as well, so it allows you to tear the wall back to the perfect amount each time. There’s very little to no error when stacking these blocks, as long as—almost like giant Legos. They all have a certain spot they need to sit in, and they all go together uniformly.
“The second material that we see here, at least up in Pittsburgh, would be natural stone. They call them boulder walls as well. We see a lot of boulder walls. The only thing you’ve got to keep in mind with boulder walls is that you can only take them so high, just because they don’t have the same integrity once you get past around three feet of height. So, if you have a wall that’s over five, eight, maybe 10 feet tall, the boulder wall may not be the path you want to go down. You’ll have to tier them back every so many feet to keep its strength.
“Other than the stone factor, the other big material-wise thing we recommend, and that we use on all of our sites, is again, we go back to the base. We need to have a solid base. We want to compact the soil. We want to get down to the soil, leave that soil uninterrupted, compact it, put your fabric down, get your modified stone in there, pack it all down nice and tight, because the last thing we want is that wall moving. Other than that, you pick your material, the stone on the wall, and then a lot of 2A and 2B limestone to keep you going.”
Integrating the Wall into the Landscape
“Nice. Now, when it comes to integration into a landscape, how do you integrate the retaining wall into a person’s existing landscape to make it look natural and cohesive with it?”
“We’ll integrate it, we’ll work with the clients. So, we work with the client to see what their color scheme is. Do they have a lot of plants? Do they have other borders going around, like their mulch bed? Does the mulch bed have a stone color? We also take a look at the color of their house, any existing patios or decks or stuff like that, because the thing is, you want it to blend in and look natural. If you’ve got a red house, we don’t want to give you, let’s say, necessarily a completely different color stone. We want something to blend in with the house and look natural into the landscape of your yard.
Retaining walls are meant to blend in. Now, if you want to go crazy, by all means, you can go crazy, but that’s why we work with the clients. We give them our professional opinion, they give us kind of a color scheme, and then we can give them a few options from there. We let them visually go and see the block, and then they can pick it from there.”
Examples of Successful Projects
“That’s great. Now can you share some examples of projects where you’ve created retaining walls that blend functionality?”
“Yeah, so we actually did a retaining wall in the Fox Chapel area, you know, later last year. We did what we call a two-tier retaining wall. We pretty much excavated the backyard, created a flat surface to put a gazebo, a mini putt-putt course, and then he wanted a two-tier wall mainly because he wanted to put plants on each level of the wall. On top of that, he wanted it to blend in with his backyard. It’s a very wooded area, so to do that we went with a darker stone.
Obviously, a darker stone in a natural setting blends in better than something that’s bright and vibrant. So, we went with a darker brown stone, built a two-tier system with steps on the side, and it turned out beautiful. He has a two-tier wall, he ended up putting a few plants throughout the wall, and now that they’re all blooming, it looks great. It’s kind of hard to tell that all that work was done to that property.”
“That’s great, you should send us some pictures of that.”
“Absolutely.”
Common Mistakes and How to Avoid Them
“Now, what are some common mistakes that homeowners or inexperienced contractors make when building retaining walls, and how can those be avoided?”
“The biggest mistake, again, is going to be the base. What we see whenever we get called in to look at a wall and estimate, we see a lot of these walls start to lean. Now, all these walls do have a natural lean backwards into the hill—that is normal—but what we don’t want is a lean forward. That’s telling us that the base of the wall is either poor, or there is very, very poor drainage in that wall.
“What’s happening is it’s causing the dirt and soil to push down through the wall, get to the base of it, and it’s holding all this water. It’s starting to slowly, over time, push at the base of it. Eventually, the wall will fail. If you’re at home or trying to do this yourself, take the time, make sure you have a good solid base. We always tell people when it comes to building walls that you need a base and you need good drainage. When you backfill that wall, make sure you have your drainage in place, you have your stone in place, and don’t just backfill it with dirt.
That’s a very common mistake. Even a three-foot wall that’s backfilled with dirt holds water—dirt holds water, stone allows water to penetrate through and find its way out. I would say the base and the backfilling of the wall are the two biggest mistakes we see as a company when we look at walls, and that we definitely avoid when we build our walls.”
“Yeah, drainage would be super important so that you don’t have the thing falling apart in just a few years, right? Depending on how hard your winter was, the freeze-thaw could really deteriorate it quickly.”
“Absolutely.”
Customizing Designs for Different Homeowners
“So, how do you customize retaining wall designs to fit the unique needs and preferences of different homeowners?”
“The customization process is honestly very simple. We as a company also give them, again, some options that we think would look best. Now, some clients have images, or they see other walls that they like and want us to build, and that’s fine. We can go off images you find on the internet, and if it’s something that won’t work for the area, we’ll give you our professional opinion and let you know. We can come up with something that’s closer and will work with that area.
“The customization process is very simple. Like I said earlier, we give them a couple of options for stone, we get on the same page, we send them down to a supply yard, or we have books and pamphlets that we can give them. They can select a stone from there, and once you select your stone, we can make it happen.”
Advice for Hiring a Contractor
“Okay, lastly, what advice would you give to homeowners who are looking to hire a contractor for building a retaining wall? What should they look for in a professional and competent contractor?”
“I would say the biggest thing to look for is someone who can communicate. Communication is key with these walls. We always make sure that we’re all on the same page before we even break ground. The last thing we want to do is do something that you don’t want us to do.
“When it comes to finding a good contractor, make sure communication is there, make sure everybody’s on the same page. What style, what form of wall—do we want a single tier, do we want two-tier, what materials, what supplies are we using? That’s the biggest thing: to be on the same page before we even start to dig and break ground. Nothing’s worse than somebody being on two different pages and getting a bad result at the end.
“My other thing would be to look at reputation. See if they have any pictures of previous walls, reference sheets. Reference sheets are a great way to know that they have clients they’ve done work for and that their stuff has lasted. So those would be my top two things: previous work, a reference sheet, and good communication back and forth with the contractor so you’re all on the same page.”
Licensing, Insurance, and Permits
“Awesome. And for your particular area, do people usually look for any type of certification or licensing, insurance, all that kind of stuff? Is that a common practice?”
“The biggest thing we look for here is insurance, because we’re dealing with machines and working around homes and stuff like that. If somebody doesn’t have insurance and they’re digging in your yard, and they didn’t call, you know, 811, or they didn’t get everything approved beforehand, that’s something you want to make sure whoever you hire has—definitely insurance. Mistakes do happen, okay, but they shouldn’t be common. The worst thing you want is something to go wrong and damage your house, and the guy you hired didn’t have insurance. Now you’re stuck footing the bill. It’s a bigger headache on the client, and a big headache for everybody.
“As for that, some areas may require a permit to get a wall built. Usually, the permit will fall on the homeowner, but we help and we work with the homeowner to get that permit. Any questions the township or borough may need, we can supply them and help that process move seamlessly, get your permit ready, and we can go from there.”
Contact Information
“All right, last thing, how can somebody get a hold of you if there’s a homeowner out there looking to get a retaining wall or any landscape excavation work done? How do they get a hold of you?”
“Oh, you can definitely give us a call or text at our phone number, which is 724-799-0490. Again, you can call us, text us at any time. We’ll get back to you. And if you want to visit our site—well, I guess our site’s getting updated, so we’ll hold off on the site there—but call us, text us any questions, or if you want a reference sheet, we’ll more than gladly give you guys a reference sheet. But yeah, that’s the best way to get a hold of us. Again, it’s 724-799-0490.”
“Perfect, thanks so much.”