Concrete Retaining Walls in Ann Arbor That Hold the Line

Sloped lots are everywhere in Ann Arbor. You see them in the hills above the Huron River, on the older streets off Geddes, and out toward Scio Township. When nothing holds that soil in place, spring rain and winter runoff drag it downhill a little more each year. It piles against your foundation and washes across the driveway. Bare patches spread where grass used to grow. Left alone, the slope only gets worse with every freeze and every storm. A concrete retaining wall stops the slide. It turns a slope you cannot use into flat, level ground. That flat ground is space you can finally use. Put a patio on it, set a garden bed, or park a car where the hill used to sit. We build walls that carry real load and hold through wet Michigan seasons, not thin facing that bows after a couple of hard winters. If that same grade also steers water toward the house, our concrete repair and leveling crew can read the whole yard on one visit.

Every wall starts under the surface. We read the slope, the soil, and the way water moves across the site before we pour a thing. Washtenaw County clay grabs water and holds it. So the footing goes in below the frost line, deep enough that winter heave cannot lift the wall or shove it out of line as the ground freezes and thaws. From there it rises in poured concrete or heavy block. We match the build to the height and the load the slope puts on it. Height changes the plan. A short garden wall is one build, while a tall wall holding a full slope needs a wider footing, more steel, and stronger drainage behind it. Gravel and a drain line go in behind the wall. Water sheds off instead of pooling and pushing on the back. We backfill in stages, pack each layer, and let the wall settle into the hillside.

• Footings poured below the frost line so winter heave never lifts the wall.
• Gravel and a drain line behind every wall to relieve trapped water pressure.
• Poured concrete or heavy block, sized for the real load your slope carries.
• Flat, level yard reclaimed from ground that used to wash away each spring.
• Clean finish that matches your home, driveway, and the hardscape already in place.

We pour walls on Ann Arbor slopes all year. So we know how the local clay acts when it is full of water. We know how fast a wall with no drainage starts to tip. Our crew picks up the phone. We show up for the site walk when we say we will, and we give you a straight answer about what your grade actually needs. No runaround. No vague hand waving about how deep the footing has to go. We tell you where the wall should sit, how tall it should be, and how we plan to drain it. When we finish a wall in Washtenaw County, it stands up to the same freeze and thaw that pulls weaker work apart every spring. We keep it simple. You call, we come look, and we lay out what the slope needs and when we can start.

Tell us where the slope is giving you trouble and we will come take a look. One call puts your Ann Arbor site walk on the schedule, and you get a clear read on what the wall needs and how we would build it. We handle the whole build, from the first cut in the soil to the final clean edge on top. No pressure, just a straight plan for holding your ground.