Retaining Wall Repair in Kansas City

Why KC retaining walls fail

A retaining wall holds back a hill, and that hill pushes on it every day, harder after a heavy rain. In Kansas City the expansive clay soil swells when it is wet and shrinks when it dries, so it works a masonry wall back and forth season after season. Add our freeze-thaw winters and poor drainage behind the wall, and the mortar joints open, the brick or block starts to lean, and eventually a section bulges or drops. The tell-tale signs are a wall tipping away from the slope, stair-step cracks, gaps at the ends, or soil and water spilling through.

Repair or rebuild, done right

If we catch it early, repointing the failed joints and resetting the loose masonry can bring the wall back before it comes apart. If a section has already leaned or bulged past the point of a patch, we take it down and rebuild it, matching the existing brick or stone so the finished wall looks like it belongs. Either way we address the drainage behind it, because a wall that cannot shed water will just fail again.

Part of your home's masonry

The same weather that cracks a retaining wall is usually working on the rest of your masonry too. When we are on site we will flag any brick that needs replacing or joints that need tuckpointing and chimney work, and handle the masonry as one system so it all sheds water for years.