Masonry Installation Services › Retaining Walls

Retaining Walls in Nashville, TN

A retaining wall holds back soil that would otherwise move downhill. The wall has to be sized for the weight and pressure of the soil behind it, accounting for water saturation and what sits on top of that soil. In Nashville's hilly neighborhoods, undersized or improperly drained walls fail regularly — sometimes slowly, sometimes all at once after a heavy rain.

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When to Call

When You Need Retaining Walls

A slope in your yard is eroding and losing soil after every rain
An existing retaining wall is leaning forward or has visible cracks
You are terracing a hillside lot to create flat usable yard space
The wall at the base of a driveway is shifting or has gaps at the base
Soil is pushing against your garage foundation from a higher adjacent lot
Blocks are separating or tipping on a wall that was built without proper batter

How It Works

Our Process for Retaining Walls

1

Load and site assessment

We look at what the wall needs to hold — soil depth, surcharge from structures or vehicles, and drainage patterns. Wall height and thickness come from that, not guesswork.
2

Drainage plan

A wall without drainage behind it will fail regardless of how it is built. We plan the gravel backfill and perforated pipe before the first block is set.
3

Foundation preparation

The base course is set below grade on compacted gravel. How far below grade depends on soil conditions and wall height. This step is not visible in the finished wall, but it is the most important one.
4

Wall construction

Courses are laid with batter — angled back into the slope — and geogrid is placed in the backfill at intervals for taller walls. Block is pinned where the manufacturer requires it.
5

Backfill and compaction

Gravel is placed directly behind the wall. Soil backfill goes in lifts and is compacted mechanically so it does not settle and pull the wall backward.
6

Final grade and cleanup

We grade the top of the wall area to direct surface water away from the back of the wall. All equipment, leftover material, and debris is removed.

What's included

Site assessment for load, drainage, and soil conditions
Excavation and compacted gravel base for the foundation course
Block or stone materials and all installation labor
Gravel drainage layer and perforated pipe behind the wall
Geogrid reinforcement in backfill for walls exceeding standard height
Backfill, compaction, and final grading at the wall top

What's not included

Engineered drawings, required by Metro Nashville for walls above a certain height
Hauling away excavated soil if volumes are large — quoted separately
Landscaping, planting, or irrigation above the finished wall

Real Situations

Common Scenarios in Nashville

A homeowner in Green Hills has a 20-year-old timber retaining wall that is leaning badly and the lower yard is starting to slip.

We remove the failed timber wall and excavated soil behind it, then build a concrete block wall with proper drainage and geogrid. Timber walls have a limited service life in Nashville's wet soil. Replacing with block or stone is the right long-term answer.

A Bellevue homeowner wants to terrace a steep backyard to create two flat areas for a patio and lawn.

We plan two separate retaining walls at different elevations rather than one tall wall. Shorter walls are more stable and easier to drain properly. We set them back far enough from each other that the upper wall's load does not bear on the lower one.

A homeowner near Percy Warner Park has a dry-stacked stone wall that has collapsed in a section after heavy spring rains.

We evaluate whether the remaining sections are stable before rebuilding the failed section. If drainage was the cause of the failure, we install a drainage system behind the rebuilt section. Rebuilding the same wall the same way produces the same result.

Nashville Context

Why this matters in Nashville

Nashville's terrain is genuinely hilly in a way that puts constant pressure on retaining walls, particularly in areas like Green Hills, Forest Hills, and Bellevue. The city also gets significant rainfall — over 47 inches a year on average — which saturates the clay soil and dramatically increases the lateral pressure a wall has to resist. Walls built without drainage behind them do not last here.

Straight Talk

About pricing & scope

Wall cost scales with height more than length, because a taller wall requires a deeper base, more gravel, and geogrid reinforcement at multiple lifts. Soil conditions that are not visible until excavation starts — rock close to the surface or saturated clay — can change the base preparation needed. We tell you what we find when we dig, before we continue.

What This Fixes