Retaining Wall Construction

Plenty of lots around Plainfield and the surrounding hill towns are anything but flat, and a well-built retaining wall is often what turns a slope into a driveway, a backyard, or a level building area. Roberts Excavation builds segmental block and natural stone walls throughout Windham and New London counties, handling the excavation, the base, the wall, and the finish grading with our own equipment — the way we have since 2010.

What separates a wall that lasts from one that leans is everything you cannot see. We excavate the base trench below grade, place and compact a gravel footing, and set the first course dead level, because every course above it follows that one. Behind the wall goes free-draining stone and, where conditions call for it, perforated pipe to daylight — water pressure and frost are what push walls over in eastern Connecticut, and drainage is how you take both out of the fight.

Taller walls are a different animal: many Connecticut towns require an engineered design and a permit once a wall passes roughly four feet of exposed height, and walls supporting a driveway or structure need engineering regardless of height. We build to the engineer's detail when one is involved, and we also tear out and rebuild failed walls — usually ones that were built without base or drainage the first time. Estimates are free.