Michigan City Indiana Retaining Walls – Sandy Slope

Loose sand on a slope keeps moving. A short run of railroad ties will not hold it for long. When a lot in Michigan City drops toward the lake or the harbor, the yard slides downhill. Then the pad beside the house settles along the low edge. So Retaining Walls in Michigan City are what we talk through on those calls. The wall keeps the yard and the pad beside the house from sliding with the sand.

Sand near the lakeshore drains fast. But rain still cuts a bare slope when it runs off the yard above. Water from a hard rain cuts small channels in the bank. After winter, spring runoff widens those channels and the bank sloughs. We have pulled failed timber walls out of banks like that. The wood had rotted where it sat in damp sand. Fill behind the ties had already moved downhill. Because the ground is loose, the wall has to be sized for that sand. We size these walls for the sand we find on Michigan City lots.

Retaining Walls in Michigan City on lakeshore sand

We pour concrete walls on these sandy lots. Sand does not give a dry-stack wall much to grip. So we excavate a footing below the loose surface sand and set the wall on that. Then we place gravel behind the wall so water can reach a drain. When the drain is missing, pressure builds and the wall leans. We have seen that lean on older walls on the harbor side of town.

The face can stay plain, or we can add a form liner if you want some texture. We will work with you on the look you want. We source the mix so we know what is going in the wall. As we note on our About Us page, Cabe’s Concrete is a family owned and operated company, and we have been at this since 2006. For example, on a lakeshore wall we spend the extra hour on the footing and the drain before we think about the cap. When we set the cap last, we have already covered the drain and the footing. You can look through finished walls in our photo gallery to see face and height.

Footing depth for Retaining Walls in Michigan City lots

The footing is the part most people never see, and it decides whether the wall stays. We dig through the loose surface sand and size the footing for wall height and slope. Then we form that footing wider than the wall stem. After the concrete sets, we lay a perforated drain at the heel of the wall. We wrap the gravel so sand cannot silt the pipe shut. When that pipe clogs, the wall holds water along with the soil. So we replace a silted drain on the same visit if the old pipe is packed with sand.

People call us about Retaining Walls in Michigan City after a timber wall has bowed. Others call after the bank has taken the lawn edge. After we walk the drop, we measure the height before we talk about a short fix.

Height changes the pour. A planting-bed wall and a wall holding a full drop beside the house take different amounts of concrete. When we walk the lot, we tell you which one you have. If a bid goes to someone else, it is usually because we put more hours on that job. Because we write the quote out line by line, each part of the wall shows up as its own line. We do not mark up material to pick up a few extra dollars.

Pads and walks beside Retaining Walls in Michigan City

The wall is rarely the only concrete on the visit. After we hold the grade, we pour the pad beside the house. We also pour a service walk or an upper walk that used to pitch toward the slope. We have replaced slabs that cracked after sand washed out from under one edge. Then the job includes concrete removal and a tear out and replace, along with the wall. That add-on shows up with Retaining Walls in Michigan City when the pad has lost support. Residential concrete around the house can go in on the same visit if the grades are ready.

We also form curbs where a drive meets the street, when that edge keeps water off the new wall. The wall and the flatwork that comes with a grade change are listed with our retaining wall work. Flatwork like that goes with Retaining Walls in Michigan City on the lakeshore lots we pour. The goal is to finish and leave a clean grade. So we backfill and pour the pad before we leave that grade open to another rain.