Concrete retaining walls in Tracy CA - built to hold your slope and drain the water

Retaining walls in the Stockton area usually cost about $20 to $45 per square foot of wall face, the side you see once the soil is back. Where a wall lands in that range depends on its height, the footing and steel the design calls for, the drainage and how easily we can reach the spot. That's a general guide for the area, not our price, and the written estimate I put together after seeing your slope gives you your own figure.

A block wall is usually cheaper than a poured concrete wall. The concrete block industry's trade group says segmental walls, the kind built from stacked interlocking blocks, typically cost 25 to 40 percent less than a poured wall. If price matters most to you, ask us to look at both, and I'll tell you if a block wall might suit your budget better.

Water trapped behind a wall can greatly increase the push on it and cause leaks, so drainage is as much a part of the wall as the concrete. A sound design calls for drain rock behind the wall, filter fabric to keep soil out of that rock, perforated drain pipe with outlets, and grading so surface water runs away from the top. A retaining wall is really about the water behind it, so we write drainage into our wall bids rather than adding it as an extra, and it's worth checking that every bid you get includes it.

Most retaining wall failures trace back to water and poor communication. One engineer who studied them found most came from the designer and crew not sharing plans well and from poor water management, with the water coming from groundwater seepage, surface runoff and leaky water and sewer lines. Changes after the job, like swapping the backfill or adding a driveway near the top, can also undo a design, so I plan every pour on paper before a form goes in the ground and the crew builds from that plan.

In Tracy, permits go to the owner of a home or residential property, or to a state-licensed contractor who holds a valid City of Tracy business license. Every permit starts with a completed, signed application emailed to the city's Building Safety Division at plancheck@cityoftracy.org, and an owner acting as owner-builder also signs a property owner disclosure before or when the permit is issued. When a job needs a permit, we take care of the application and the inspections, and if it's unclear whether yours does, we check with the city before we start.

Take a few photos of the slope from the top and the bottom, and jot down a rough length and height for the wall. Note anything near where it will go, like a driveway, a patio or a pool, because loads close to the wall change the design. Have those handy when you call or fill out the form.