Slope washing out or an old wall leaning? We build poured concrete walls that hold the dirt and drain the water behind it.
A concrete retaining wall in Little Rock is a poured wall of ready-mix concrete and steel that holds back a slope, so you get flat ground you can use and dirt that stays where it belongs. Most of the job is what you never see once it's done, the dig, the steel and the gravel and drains behind the wall.
Most calls start the same way. A bank keeps washing into the driveway, the yard slopes too hard to use, or an old timber or block wall is leaning out at the top. Behind most of the leaning walls I look at, the dirt was soaked and the water had no way out.
Price mostly follows how long and how tall the wall runs and how hard your ground is to dig. The schedule turns on whether your address needs a permit or a city review, and on the ground being dry enough to dig and pour. When I come out, I measure it, talk through your choices and give you a number for your own wall.
You deal with me from the first look to the last walk-around. Here's how it runs.
I come out, walk the slope, and check what sits above it and where the water runs off it. I learned this trade on concrete crews around Little Rock and started this business in 2020, and you get a straight answer at that first visit about what your wall needs.
Our crew handles the dig, the forms and the pour, with me running the job on site. I check the footing, the steel and the drain layout before the truck shows up, because that's the last chance to get them right.
We're fully licensed and insured. When the wall's done, I walk it with you and show you where the drains come out, and to get yours started, call (501) 274-1092 or send the form.
We dig out for the footing, the wide base the wall stands on, and pack the ground under it so it doesn't settle. Then we tie in rebar, the steel that lets the wall take the push of the dirt behind it, build the forms and pour the ready-mix. Once the concrete has cured, the wait while it gains strength, we lay soil fabric against the dirt, set the drains and backfill with clean gravel so water drops straight to the drain instead of soaking the dirt and leaning on the wall. Poor drainage is by far the most common reason these walls don't hold up, so it gets most of my thought, and it's the first thing you should ask any bidder about. A nice face on a wall that can't shed water is money wasted. If you're torn between poured concrete and block, I'll tell you straight which one suits your yard.
A wall often goes in to make room for something else. If it's leveling ground beside a pool, we can pour the concrete pool deck on top of that flat ground, and if it's clearing space for a shop or an addition, our concrete floor installation work picks up from there.
Every wall goes in the same order, and the early steps decide how it holds.
Before anything else we figure out where rain comes off the slope and where it'll leave the wall, because that sets the drain layout and the footing.
We pick poured or block for your yard and sort out any design the wall needs, so nothing stalls once the digging starts.
The crew digs, packs the footing, ties the steel and builds the forms, then the truck comes and we pour. We keep everything off the fresh concrete while it cures.
We fill behind the wall and grade the top so water runs away from it instead of toward it. Then we haul off the extra dirt and leave the yard raked out.
Send the wall's rough length and height, what sits above it and a few photos of the slope, or call (501) 274-1092. We get back to you within one business day, then I come out to look at it and give you a free estimate. There's no obligation to go ahead.
(501) 274-1092Poured concrete retaining walls in Little Rock usually cost about $30 to $40 per square foot of wall face, labor included. Those usual estimates are figured on a wall about 3 feet high, and tearing out an old wall, curves, stamped or colored concrete, brick, a taller wall or tough soil all push the price up. When you compare bids, check that each one lists the same things, the dig, soil fabric, steel, concrete and gravel backfill.
Your ground and what sits above the wall should decide it more than price, even though block walls usually cost less to put in. One design guide points to poured concrete for walls under heavy vehicle traffic, next to a building foundation or along a tight property line, because a block wall's soil reinforcement would have to reach into the neighbor's property. I'll tell you which one your yard calls for when I see it.
A contractor licensed for it under Arkansas's residential contractor rules can build it. The state lists retaining walls as a specialty, a specialty contractor can only do the specialty its license covers, and a licensed residential building contractor or remodeler can do the specialties tied to its classification. Ask anyone who bids your wall which license they hold.
Arkansas has expansive clays that swell when they're wet and shrink when they dry, and that movement can break apart walls built without allowing for it. Many of those problems can be handled with engineering before construction, so on clay we settle the design and the drainage before we set a single form.
Little Rock's Building Codes Division issues construction permits, and its list names building, plumbing, mechanical and electrical work, not retaining walls. The city's Engineering Division handles review, inspection and enforcement for retaining walls on private development projects, so I check with the city or county office for your address about what your wall needs, and we handle the permit paperwork when one is required. We're based in Little Rock and build walls across the cities around it in central Arkansas, from North Little Rock and Maumelle to Bryant, Benton and Conway, and if you don't see your city on the site, call and ask.
A slipping slope or a leaning wall usually gives up more dirt with every hard rain, so call (501) 274-1092 or use the form and I'll come take a look.
Tell us about your slope and what sits above it, and we'll take it from there.
Tell us about your project