Is your slope creeping, washing out or pushing on an old wall? We build poured walls that drain water and hold the ground.
A concrete retaining wall is a wall poured in place to hold back a slope, and in Post Falls it's how we keep a hillside from sliding onto your patio, driveway or foundation.
Most calls start with a slope that keeps slumping onto a patio, a driveway cut into a hill, or an old timber wall that's leaning out. The first thing to decide is which kind of wall your slope needs, because a dry-laid wall of stacked stone or block costs a lot less than poured concrete and can handle a short, gentle grade. The taller the slope, the more the wall has to hold, and that's where concrete earns its keep.
A wall often comes with other work, like leveling a backyard for concrete pool decks or cutting a flat pad for a shop with concrete floor installation. The price mostly moves with the wall's height and length, the design, and how easy your lot is to dig and reach. The schedule turns on whether you need an engineer's design and what the permit office says, and I'll go over both with you at the estimate.
Call (208) 981-9070 or use the form, and we'll set up a time for me to come see the slope. It helps to have the wall's rough length and height in mind, plus any driveway or slope right above it.
I come out myself, ask how you'll use the ground above and below the wall, and look at the soil and where water runs now. Then I put together your estimate, so you have a price for your wall to weigh before you decide anything.
We check with the building office for your address about permits, handle the applications for our part when one's needed, and get an engineer's design first if the wall calls for one. Post Falls inspections don't come with morning or afternoon slots, so we have the site ready that morning and give the inspector our pour time so they can try to work within it.
We plan the pour around the weather and the ground, set the footing, drainage and wall, then backfill once the concrete has cured, which is the wait while it gains strength, enough to take the load. I'm on site with our crew through the finish and the cleanup.
Water building up behind a wall is what usually brings one down, so we plan the drainage before anything else. That means gravel backfill behind the wall so water can move, a drain pipe along the base to carry it off, and weep holes, small openings through the face, so water has a way out instead of pushing. Taller or trickier walls get an engineer's design, and we build to it.
Kootenai County's design rules set a minimum depth for footings to sit below the frost, and that decides how deep the base of your wall goes. Much of Post Falls sits on Rathdrum Prairie ground that's mostly boulder gravel with sand mixed in, so we dig through plenty of rock here. When a wall gets an engineer's design, that soil gets weighed along with the height, the length of slope behind it, the wall material and the room we have to work.
What goes into one of our walls:
If your wall stands straight with a few hairline cracks and water still gets out through it, a repair and some drainage cleanup can be the sensible move. If it's leaning, bulging or the footing has shifted, the trouble is usually trapped water or a weak base behind and under it, and patching the face won't touch that. In that case I'd rather replace it and fix the drainage, though you only know for sure once the ground's open.
Height matters most, because a taller wall holds more weight and needs more footing, more steel and sometimes an engineer's design. Length, the shape of the wall, how much rock we dig through and how easy it is to get equipment to the spot all add up too, and so does tearing out an old wall. If you need to trim the budget, take it out of the finish, not the footing and drainage, since nobody sees those on day one and they're what keep the wall standing.
I started this business in Post Falls in 2020, after teaching myself concrete on my own projects and learning the rest beside crews who'd done it for years. I still come out to look at every job myself, and I'm on site with our crew for the work, so the person who looked at your slope is the one watching your wall go in.
I care most about the part you won't see once it's done, the ground under the wall and where the water goes. I'll explain your job well enough that you can ask good questions, of us or of anybody else you're talking to. Every wall we build is backed by our satisfaction guarantee. Call (208) 981-9070 when you're ready to talk it over.
Call (208) 981-9070 so I can see the slope in person, since soil, water and what sits above the wall decide what it needs.
Give us the wall's rough length and height and any driveway or slope above it. We reply within one business day to book my visit, and the on-site estimate is free with no obligation.
Across the US, a poured concrete retaining wall built by a contractor usually costs about $30 to $50 per square foot. That's a national figure, not our price, and where your wall lands depends on its height, design and how easy the spot is to reach. I'll give you your own number after I walk the site.
Most retaining walls fail from pressure as water or wet soil builds up behind them. General guidance says every wall needs a way to drain that water, through gravel backfill or drain pipe, and that structural walls need weep holes. That's why we plan the drainage first, as covered above.
Kootenai County requires an engineered design for a detached retaining wall taller than 4 feet, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall. A shorter wall can need one too when extra weight pushes from above, like a driveway or another slope. If yours is in that range, plan for design time before any concrete goes in.
The City of Post Falls Building Division reviews plans, issues building permits and inspects new construction in the city. Their rules for your lot are theirs to answer, which is why we check with them before we schedule. We're licensed and insured for the work we do.
Most of the time on a retaining wall goes into the steps around the pour, not the pour itself. An engineer's design and the permit review come first when your wall needs them, then the digging, the footing and the forms, and the concrete has to cure before we backfill. I'll tell you what your wall's schedule hinges on when I come out.
Ask how they'll drain the wall, how deep the footing goes and whether your wall needs an engineer's design, and listen for a straight answer on each. Also expect paperwork before you sign, since Idaho requires a general contractor to give you a disclosure statement before a contract over $2,000 for work on your home.
We're based in Post Falls and build retaining walls on both sides of the state line, including Coeur d'Alene and Spokane Valley. Pick your city below, or call if yours isn't listed.
