Retaining Walls in Lorne Park

South-west Mississauga is cut by small creeks running down to Lake Ontario, and some of them pass through wooded ravines in this area. Houses near them often have backyards that fall away under the trees, with lawn at the top and roots, leaves and slope below. Credit Valley Conservation regulates land around those valleys, and a permit can be needed before any grading, filling or wall building near a ravine or creek. Its mapping is the first thing we check.

On these slopes, armour stone often makes more sense than manufactured block. The pieces are large, heavy and irregular, so they hold a lot of grade with few courses, and they look natural beside mature trees and leaf litter. Each stone is set by machine on a compacted base, with clear stone and a drain behind it, and the wall steps back slightly as it rises. On a steep yard, two or three terraces with stone steps between them turn a slope you avoided into levels you walk down to.

The trade-off is access. A single armour stone can weigh well over a tonne, and ravine lots don't always offer a clear path for a loader. We plan the route around the house, protect the root zones the machine has to cross, and sometimes stage the work from the top terrace down. Closer to the house, where a patio or stairs need crisp edges, a natural-looking block can sit alongside the armour stone without clashing. If a wall faces a public path or a building entrance and stands over 1 m, Ontario Building Code permit rules come into it as well.