Retaining walls can help you overcome a multitude of design and construction obstacles. Whether a site contains steep slopes or gentle ones, retaining walls have the potential to create level space for outdoor living, play and planting beds. They also offer the opportunity to introduce a pleasing design element and material to the landscape and generate visual interest through elevation changes.

Terry McMahon, landscape designer for Borst Landscape and Design, Allendale, New Jersey, says the aesthetic element of retaining walls is becoming more important. “The beauty of the wall is what people love to see,” she says.

Paul Fredell, co-owner of landscape design and installation company Fredell Enterprises, Colorado Springs, Colorado, notes that in addition to their functional duties, retaining walls can create ambiance. Key to building a retaining wall that will improve the overall look of a landscape is choosing a wall material that works well with the home and landscape. Jody Shilan, owner of Jody Shilan Designs, Wyckoff, New Jersey, says many homeowners and contractors fail to do this.

The following project profiles could give you some ideas for your next retaining-wall job.

1. Creating multi-functional areas

   Starting point: After demolishing a 1950s-era house on a corner lot, the property owners set out to build a larger, dream home (a common practice in their area of New Jersey). The new house would be positioned at an odd angle on the lot in order to comply with set-back requirements, rendering front, back and side yards indefinable. The clients requested a level play area for their 6-year-old twins. The sloped grade under the original driveway, which was removed with the old house, made playing sports such as basketball impossible since the ball would bounce or roll away as soon as it hit the ground. In front, the grade sloped up toward the site of the tall, colonial-style, new home.

   advertisement

   The plan: The homeowners began working with Jody Shilan of Jody Shilan Designs to develop hardscape spaces as soon as they established building plans for the house. Retaining walls were a given, so Shilan helped the couple choose stone for the home’s foundation, entrance and chimney that could be matched to a wall stone. To create a large, level space where the clients’ children could play and ride bikes without going in the street, Shilan changed the grade of the driveway area, building up one side and cutting into the other. He designed a 2-foot-high, 35-foot-long, L-shape wall to hold back the slope around the driveway. The dry-laid granite wall doubles as seating space for the children when they need to “take a breather” while playing basketball and for the parents when they watch their children play. The driveway also is big enough for three or four cars. “I’m big on seat walls in combination with the retaining function,” Shilan says. “Everything I design, I try to have at least two uses for it.” Another 2-foot-high, 30-foot-long wall retains a slope next to a walkway. The clients had the choice of a long, sloped front walkway or a modified level yard held in place by retaining walls. They opted for the latter, and Shilan designed two, 20-foot-long, 2-foot-high walls with steps for the walkway built into them. The walls define the front yard and the grade change “creates visual interest and gives formality to the front of the house,” Shilan says.

   Challenges: The granite was difficult to chip and manipulate into the necessary shapes. But for this project, granite was the only stone that would work, and the results were worth the extra effort, Shilan says. “The walls look like a continuation of the house,” he says.

   Outcome: The family recently moved into the home, and the retaining walls are part of the first landscaping phase. “They’re ecstatic about it,” Shilan says of his clients. “They’re very happy with the way the spaces feel. They’re excited to come home each day and see what’s been done.”

   • 1
   • 2
   • 3

   »

   Last