Retaining Walls in Mineola

When a 1950s bungalow comes down and a new custom house goes up, the new main floor usually ends up higher than the old one. Deeper basements and modern foundations push it up, and suddenly the front of the house shows a lot of concrete with a steep bank down to the driveway. A planter wall along the front, sometimes two stepped ones, takes that height in stages and gives you a bed for shrubs where there was bare slope.

Toward the west side of the neighbourhood the ground tilts down to the Credit River valley, and some lots on that side have a real drop at the back. That's land where Credit Valley Conservation regulation can apply, so a permit may be needed before grading or building a wall near the slope. We check the mapping first. On regulated or steep sites, a wall is designed around the stability of the bank, not just the view from the patio.

Mature trees are part of almost every yard here, and a wall footing means a trench. Placing walls outside the main root zones, or bridging over large roots, keeps a fifty-year-old maple alive. Material usually follows the house: clean-lined block for a modern rebuild, natural stone or armour stone where the lot is wooded. Whatever the face, every wall gets a compacted base, clear stone and drainage, because water trapped behind a wall turns into frost pressure every winter.