Concrete Retaining Walls in Yakima WA - holds your slope and lets the water out
If your slope is sliding, your old wall is leaning or dirt washes onto the yard, we build a poured wall that holds it.
- Licensed and fully insured.
- Free in-person estimates.
- We respond within 1 business day.
Do you need a concrete retaining wall in Yakima?
A concrete retaining wall in Yakima is a structural wall poured in place to stand up to the push of the dirt behind it, so you can keep a slope or a change in grade where you want it instead of watching it creep toward the house.
Most calls start the same way. A hillside keeps spilling onto the patio or the driveway, or an old wall has started to tip, and you want the ground held. What moves the price is mostly the wall's height and length, whether an old wall has to come out, curves or steps in the layout, a finish on the face, and how much digging and drainage the slope needs behind it. The schedule turns on the permit side and the weather, because the wall has to cure, sitting until it's hard enough to take the dirt's weight, before we backfill against it. I check whether your address falls under the city or Yakima County before anything else, and your written estimate spells out the mix, the prep and what's included.
How do you know your retaining wall is in trouble?
Wall leaning at the top
If the top of your wall tips out past the bottom, the dirt behind it is winning, usually because water has built up back there with nowhere to go. A lean only gets worse, and a wall that's still standing is cheaper to deal with than one that's come down across the yard.
Dirt washing onto pavement
Mud fanning out across the driveway or patio after every storm means the slope is moving with the water. Left alone, it works under whatever sits at the bottom, and the cleanup turns into a repair bill.
Wet base, stained cracks
A damp strip along the bottom of a wall, or cracks that bleed rust or white stains, usually means water is soaking through the wall instead of draining out behind it. That water keeps pushing every season, so waiting tends to turn a drainage fix into a rebuild.
How we build a concrete retaining wall
Walls fail from water behind them, so I plan the drainage as carefully as the concrete. We dig out to firm ground and pack a compacted base, because a wall is only as good as what it sits on, then set the forms and the rebar, steel bars that hold the wall together under load, and pour the footing and the wall. Once it's cured we put in the drain behind it, backfill and shape the ground so runoff heads away from the wall instead of into it. The base and the drain are hidden on day one, which makes them the first thing some budgets cut, and I'd drop a stained face before I'd skimp on either one, because a good-looking wall on a bad base still moves.
The flat ground a wall creates is usually there for a reason. If it's room for a pool, we can pour the concrete pool deck on the same plan, and if the wall is cut in beside a shop or a basement space, concrete floor installation inside often comes up in the same conversation.
Poured concrete wall
This suits a tall cut, a slope with a driveway, a building or more hill above it, or a spot where you want a clean, straight face. It's one solid piece tied to its footing, and it costs more than stacked material for that reason.
Stacked dry wall
A dry-laid wall of stacked stone or block with open joints costs much less, and on a short, gentle slope it's often all the job needs. If that's your yard, I'll tell you so, even if it means we don't pour.
Get a written estimate for your retaining wall
Send the form and we'll get back to you within one business day to set up a visit. I come out, look over the slope and give you a free written estimate, with no obligation.
Call (509) 452-5002- Based in
- Yakima, WA 98901
- Hours
- Mon–Fri: 6 AM–10 PM, Sat–Sun: 8 AM–10 PM
What happens when you call about a retaining wall in Yakima?
Here's how a retaining wall job runs from your first call to the cleanup, and who you'll be dealing with at each step.
Call or send a message
Reach us at (509) 452-5002 or through the form, and we'll get back to you to set up a visit. Let us know if you're inside city limits, since that decides which office we'll be dealing with.
I measure and write it up
I come out, measure the slope, look at where the water goes and ask how you'll use the ground above and below the wall. Your written estimate lays out the mix, the prep and what's included, so you can compare it line by line instead of guessing what a lump number covers.
We prep, pour and clean up
Once you say go, we sort out the permit side, dig, pack the base and form the wall. I'm on site for the pour and the cleanup.
Why Yakima homeowners call United Yakima Concrete for retaining walls
The owner walks your slope
I come out myself to look at the job and write the estimate, and I'm on site when the crew pours. The person who priced your wall is the one watching it go in, so nothing gets lost between the visit and the work.
Learned concrete here in the valley
I left an office job to learn concrete on a flatwork crew here, and after a few seasons pouring for other outfits I started this business in 2013. That's where I learned that the prep you can't see is the part that's hardest to fix later.
Licensed and fully insured
We're licensed and fully insured. A wall job means digging near fences, footings and property lines, so you shouldn't be the one exposed if something goes wrong on site.
With a retaining wall, most of what you're paying for ends up underground, and I'd rather explain the base and the drain to you on site than in a sales pitch. Send us the details or give us a call and I'll come take a look.
Retaining walls, footings and drainage in Yakima
Who decides on a permit depends on where your property sits. Inside city limits, the City of Yakima takes permit applications and plans. Out in the county, Yakima County exempts walls up to 4 feet tall, footing included, unless they hold up a surcharge, extra weight above the wall such as a driveway, a building or more slope. That exemption is the county's rule and doesn't settle a wall inside the city, so I check which office covers your address and what it asks for on your wall before we plan the pour.
Winters here decide how the footing goes in. The city puts frost depth, how far freezing reaches into the ground, at 24 inches and rates weathering exposure as severe, so I plan the footing depth and the mix with both in mind and show you on the estimate how deep we're going. We see the same cut slopes behind houses and driveways on jobs in Selah and Terrace Heights, and the same planning goes into those walls.
Questions about retaining walls in Yakima
Call (509) 452-5002A poured concrete retaining wall in Yakima usually runs about $30 to $40 per square foot of wall face, installed. That going rate assumes a wall about 3 feet high, so tearing out an old wall, terracing, extra height, curves, a stamped or stained face and landscaping all add to it. Your written estimate shows what's in your number and what isn't.
Most retaining walls fail because water or wet soil builds up pressure behind them. General building guidance says that water has to drain freely down and away through a drainage layer and pipe, with weep holes, small openings through the face, on poured walls, and sometimes a filter so fine soil doesn't clog the drain. Surface water matters too, so ask any contractor where the runoff from above the wall will go, and I'll show you that on your plan.
We handle the permit paperwork for our part of the work, once I've checked whether your address falls under the city or the county. You'll know plainly where the permit stands before we set a pour date, so there's no surprise halfway through.
Use the state's contractor Verify tool from L&I, the Department of Labor and Industries, which shows whether a business has an active contractor registration and a paid-up workers' comp account. Washington requires every construction contractor to register with L&I and to be bonded and insured, and the same lookup shows safety violations and any lawsuits against the contractor's bond.
Some block systems can do the job and some can't, because what a segmental block wall can hold varies from one system to the next. They're built either stacked on their own or with soil reinforcement tied back into the slope, and the block maker's recommendations for the soil loads decide how far a given system can go.
The pour is the short part, and most of the time goes to the permit side, the digging and forming, and the curing wait before we backfill against the wall. Weather moves it too, since we don't pour into frozen ground or the midday heat that leaves a weak surface. I'll talk through the timing with you when I come out to look.
Related services that often go with a retaining wall
Concrete pool decks
If the wall levels off a spot for a pool, a poured deck around it turns that new flat ground into a place you can walk and sit.
Concrete floor installation
When a wall holds back the grade beside a shop, garage or basement space, a new concrete floor inside is often the next job on the list.
Service areas for retaining wall work
United Yakima Concrete is based in Yakima, WA, and builds retaining walls in the cities around it, from Ellensburg down to Grandview. The 8 cities below each have their own page, and they aren't the only places we work.
Yakima, WA
Tell us about the slope you need held
Send the wall's length, rough height, a few photos of the slope and whether you're inside city limits, so I show up already knowing what to look at.