Crown Point Indiana Retaining Walls for Sloped Yards

A retaining wall is how you hold a sloped yard so the flat part stays usable. Retaining Walls in Crown Point hold lots where the grade drops past a driveway or patio. People call us when a slab edge has dropped after winter. Then we walk the slope and see what is pushing on it.

Crown Point, Indiana sits on rolling ground, higher than the flat lake plain to the north. Because a lot can rise fast, the drop often hides behind the garage. We’ve formed walls that step from a patio down to a service walk. After a few winters, a thin concrete edge at that drop usually cracks.

It’s hard to shovel a walk that drops over a short run. Ice forms where the water slows. We’ve reset those walks after the concrete cracked at the low end. We bring up a wall once that flat work can’t sit on that slope.

Families here want a level spot for a table and a walk up to the door. So the wall is there to make that flat spot stay put. We hear about mowing a bank that gets slick, or a grill pad that tipped. When we get there, we mark where the grade should break.

Retaining Walls in Crown Point After Freeze and Thaw

The town sits on rolling ground above the flat lake plain. So Retaining Walls in Crown Point keep a driveway or patio terrace from shifting through freeze and thaw. Water collects in the soil behind a weak edge. When that water freezes, it pushes on the concrete. After the thaw, the soil softens and the top slab can settle a bit more.

We’ve seen that drop on older lots near the downtown square and on newer yards farther out. Builders often leave a short grass slope between the house pad and the lawn. But the flat work still needs something solid at the break in grade. For example, a patio on fill will sink at the open edge when the slope is only grass.

People call in spring about a lean, or a gap under the slab. We look for soil washed out at the toe and for cracks along the joint. Then we measure the drop and the length of wall the grade needs.

How We Pour Retaining Walls in Crown Point

We stake the wall line and dig down to firm soil before any concrete goes in. Then we set forms so the face stays plumb and the top matches the slab it will hold. Because trapped water pushes in a freeze, we set gravel and a drain behind the wall. So we pour only after that drainage is in place. That’s the order we follow for Retaining Walls in Crown Point.

We strip the forms once the wall can stand on its own. After that we backfill in layers and tie the wall into the driveway or the patio above it. A lot of these jobs also need concrete replacement where the old edge has broken up. We tear out and replace that slab on the same visit when it has failed.

On new construction we set the wall before the patio goes down. Decorative concrete can go on top if you want color or a stamp. We match Retaining Walls in Crown Point to the house and the grade on the lot.

Upper walks and a service walk often land in the same pour, since the slope is already open. We can schedule a garage floor when the wall is holding the drive. You can see our retaining walls work with the other flatwork we pour.

Cabe’s Concrete is a family owned and operated company, and we have poured in northwest Indiana since 2006. The photo gallery shows finished walls. Our about us page has more on the company.

Salt from a driveway can sit against the base of a wall all winter. So we keep that joint tight and send meltwater away from the face. The drain behind the wall has to stay open after we leave. When it clogs, water sits in the backfill for the next freeze.