Retaining Wall and Garden Wall Builders in Coventry and Solihull

New Front Walls, Piers and Steps

Garden Walls We Have Built

Walls as Part of a Garden Design

Earlsdon, Coventry

A stone-clad wall carries the upper terrace, with steps down to the lawn.

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Lapworth, Solihull

Curved blockwork planters taking shape, ready for render.

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Atherstone

A sleeper retaining wall topped with glass and rope balustrade.

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Over Whitacre, near Coleshill

Sleeper steps taking up the change in level beside a sett path.

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What a Retaining Wall Does

Most sloping gardens are hard to use. A slope suits a lawn or planting, but it is no good for a patio or somewhere to eat outside. Once the ground is dug out to make a level area, something has to hold back the soil above it, or it will slowly slump and wash onto the new surface. That is the retaining wall’s job, and the ground it holds up becomes usable too, for a raised lawn, a planted bed or seating.

Any wall with earth behind it is a retaining wall, so raised beds count as well. Built to a sensible height they bring the plants closer and cut down the bending, which is handy for fruit and vegetables. The wall is also one of the strongest shapes in the garden, so we treat it as a feature: straight or curved, with steps and seating built in where they help.

Three Ways to Hold Back the Ground

• Gravity walls. The wall’s own weight resists the push of the soil, so the heavier it is, the more it holds. Dense concrete blocks or heavy stone, faced to suit the garden, are typical, and this is the usual choice up to about 5 feet.
• Cantilever walls. An L-shaped wall, with the upright stem tied into a wide foundation slab. The soil sitting on the slab holds the stem upright, which allows taller walls, up to about 10 feet, with engineering design.
• Crib walls. Interlocking concrete or timber units stacked in a lattice and filled with free-draining stone. They suit larger banks and can be planted.

Which one fits depends on the height, the soil, how much water it holds and what sits above the wall, such as a patio, a drive or a neighbour’s garden. On larger walls we always bring in a structural engineer.

Drainage Keeps a Retaining Wall Standing

Water trapped behind a wall adds to the weight of the soil pressing on it, and it is the most common reason garden retaining walls lean or crack. So every retaining wall we build gets:

1. A load-bearing foundation sized for the wall, with the ground, the block density and the mortar mix chosen to suit. Our tallest wall to date is about 1.5 metres high, a 9-inch wall built from 7 newton, 4-inch blocks.
2. Drainage channels about 3 inches across, every 750–1,000 mm along the first course above ground, with wire mesh behind each one so gravel cannot block it. They are the small gaps you can see along the base of the curved wall above.
3. Free-draining backfill, built up in layers from 10 mm to 20 mm gravel and, where the ground calls for it, Type 1 stone, so groundwater and heavy rain run through instead of building up.
4. A geotextile membrane, such as Terram, between the soil and the gravel, so the drainage layer stays clean and keeps working for years.

On heavy clay, water is the main problem, and the wall often needs to tie in with drainage for the rest of the garden.

Brick, Render, Stone or Sleepers?

Where a wall is holding back real weight, the block behind the face matters more than the face itself, so almost any facing brick or stone can be used. Where it is not, the choice widens:

• Brick. Classic for front walls and piers. Mixing colours works well, especially a contrasting blue brick on the capping.
• Render on blockwork. Smooth, clean and modern, and it can be painted any colour, which is why it suits curved planters and built-in seating.
• Stone cladding and walling stone. Adds texture and matches well with sandstone or porcelain paving, as on the Earlsdon terrace.
• Timber sleepers. Quick to build and natural looking, stacked into low walls, raised beds and steps. Timber will not last as long as masonry.
• Gabions. Steel wire cages filled with rock or stone, free-standing and increasingly popular in show gardens. They can be planted to become living walls.

We can take you through the finishes that suit for your height and budget, and they are all worked out on the drawing if we are also designing the garden.

Planning, Boundaries and Party Walls

Most garden walls need no permission, but a few rules are worth knowing. In broad terms, for houses in England:

• Height. A wall up to 2 metres high is normally permitted development, or 1 metre where it faces a road that carries traffic. Where the ground is a different level on each side, how the height is measured can matter, so check before building close to the limit.
• Listed buildings and conservation areas have tighter rules, and a wall in the grounds of a listed building may need consent.
• Walls on the boundary. If a new wall will sit on the boundary line, or the dig for its footing comes close to a neighbour’s house, the Party Wall etc. Act 1996 may mean serving notice on your neighbour first.

We are not solicitors or planning officers, and your council has the final say. We raise these points at the design stage so there are no surprises once work starts.

Why Choose Us for Your Wall

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Wall Builders Across Coventry, Solihull and Warwickshire

Our wall-building team works right across Coventry, Solihull and the Warwickshire towns and villages, such as:

Retaining Wall Questions