Soil slumping onto your patio or washing out after a storm? We build poured walls on a real footing, with drainage behind them.
A concrete retaining wall holds back soil where your yard drops from one level to another, and in Laredo we pour them on a footing with steel and drainage behind them, built to keep the slope where it is.
Most calls start with dirt washing onto a patio, a slope creeping toward the fence or an old wall leaning out at the top. Soil pushes sideways all the time, and harder when it's wet, so a wall has to fight that push with its own weight or with a reinforced wall tied to a footing, the wide concrete base it stands on.
What moves the price is the wall's height and length, what the design calls for in footing and steel, how much digging and hauling the yard needs, the soil, and whether the face is plain or curved and decorated. The schedule turns on the design, any permit, and the wait for the concrete to gain strength before we backfill. Your estimate breaks those parts out line by line.
A retaining wall is a structure, not a flower bed border. A few decisions around it matter as much as the concrete, and these are the ones worth settling before anything gets poured.
A driveway, a parked truck or a pool deck near the top of the wall adds weight the soil passes straight to the wall. Changing the fill behind it later, or letting water build up there, can undo what the design assumed even when the concrete is strong, so tell me about those plans before the design is set.
The dirt doesn't go back behind a new wall the day we pour. Backfill goes in once the wall has enough strength and any bracing it needs, packed in layers with equipment that won't shove against young concrete. Ask us how we'll handle that step on your job and we'll walk you through it.
The drain outlets at the base of the wall carry water out from behind it, and that water has to go somewhere. We look at where it'll run before we pour, so it doesn't pool at the foot of the wall or head toward your house or patio.
Here's how a retaining wall job runs from your first call to the day we pack up, and what you have in hand at each point along the way.
Call (956) 508-9209 or use the form and tell us roughly how tall and long the slope is and what's above and below it. Photos help me see the job before I drive out.
I come out, measure the slope and ask what the wall needs to hold. You get a written estimate with the footing, steel, wall, drainage and backfill each on its own line, so you see what you're paying for.
If the wall needs a permit, we take care of it with the city, which allows up to 21 days for review. Then we set the footing and steel, pour, finish and let the wall cure, the wait while it gains strength.
Before we pack up, I walk the wall with you, show you where the drain outlets are and what to keep clear of them. Then the yard is yours again.
We don't size a wall by how tall it is. Height alone doesn't tell you how wide the footing should be, how deep the wall sits, how it drains or how much rebar goes inside it to keep it from bending under the soil. That comes from a design for your wall and your ground, and a fair quote rests on it.
Behind the wall, we treat the drain rock and outlets as seriously as the concrete. General practice calls for drainage gravel against the back of the wall, a filter layer that keeps dirt out of that gravel, perforated drain outlets to let water through, and ground shaped to send water away. Leave those out and the wall ends up holding back a wet bank.
A wall is often the first part of a bigger plan for a sloped lot. Cutting a level spot into the yard can make room for one of our concrete pool decks, or for a shop or storage building that needs concrete floor installation on the flat ground the wall creates. If that's the plan, tell me early so the wall is designed for it.
If the budget gets tight, the footing and the drainage are the last places I'll cut, because they're buried the day we finish and they're what keeps the wall standing. A plainer face holds the same slope for less. And if a wall is past what I'd build without an engineer's design, I'd rather send you to an engineer than pour something I don't believe in.
A gravity wall stands by its own weight and the soil it holds, with light steel or none. It's thick and heavy, and it usually suits shorter walls where there's room for a wide base.
A cantilever wall is a thinner reinforced wall on a footing that reaches back under the slope, so the soil resting on that footing holds it in place. It usually makes sense for taller walls or tighter yards.
Send the form and we'll reply within one business day to set a time for me to come out. The estimate is free, done on site and written out line by line, with no obligation. If you have the wall's rough height, length and a few photos of the slope, add them so I know what I'm walking into.
(956) 508-9209In Laredo, Building Development Services handles building permits, and a city ordinance says any wall taller than four feet "will require a building permit." For your own wall, especially one near that height, call them at 956-794-1625 to confirm what applies. When a permit is needed, we pull it as your hired contractor, so you don't take on the contractor's role yourself.
Some lots need more than a permit. Inside a 100-year floodplain, the city says retaining walls are built of reinforced concrete or other materials approved for the site, and special structural designs go to the City Engineer with calculations for approval. Where the city calls for an engineer's certification, that engineer has to be licensed to practice in Texas.
The ground here is the other reason every wall gets its own design. Much of Webb County is clay that's sticky when wet and rock-hard when dry, and large parts of it swell and shrink with moisture. Some areas flood now and then, and in places bedrock sits within 40 inches of the surface. We run into all of that on jobs across Laredo and the cities around it.
I learned concrete from my dad, setting forms and pulling screed boards on his jobs from the time I was a teenager. We've been in business since 2021, 5 years now. I still come out to look at every job myself, and when we build, our crew does the work with me on site.
We're fully licensed and insured. What I care about most is what's under the concrete, because a good-looking wall on a weak footing with no drainage won't hold up. Your satisfaction, guaranteed. Call (956) 508-9209 or send us the form and I'll set a time to come look at your slope.
Once a wall levels part of a sloped backyard, a poured pool deck gives you a flat surface around the water that sheds rain away from the pool.
If the flat ground behind a new wall is meant for a shop, storage building or workroom, it'll need a poured floor set on a well-packed base.
We're based in Laredo, TX and build retaining walls in Laredo and the cities around it. If you're not sure whether we come out your way, call and ask.
A 3 ft high poured concrete retaining wall in Laredo usually runs about $34 to $37 per square foot, with site prep, excavation, backfill and reinforcement included. Taller walls, curves, stamped or multi-colored concrete, brick, tearing out an old wall and difficult soil all run outside that figure. Your estimate prices your own wall line by line.
Water trapped behind a wall can greatly increase the load on it and push through as leaks. The gravel and drain outlets give that water a way out before it builds pressure. Once the wall is in, keep the outlets clear of dirt, mulch and plants so they keep working.
The time on site is usually the shorter part of the job. The overall schedule is set by the design, any permit review, the weather around pour day and the wait for the wall to gain strength before backfill goes in. Summer heat matters here, since concrete poured in the middle of a hot day can end up weak at the surface.
Have a rough height and length for the wall and a few photos of the slope from the top and the bottom. Know what you want on the high side, like a driveway, a deck or just lawn, because that changes the design. If you know of sprinkler lines or utilities nearby, tell me before I come out.
It may get fine hairline cracks as it dries, and those are usually cosmetic. What actually ruins a wall is a footing on loose ground or water pushing from behind, which is why the design and the drainage get so much of our attention. If you see an existing wall leaning or seeping through cracks, have it looked at.
Soil that's already slumping or washing out usually keeps moving with every hard rain, so call (956) 508-9209, use the form or email sales@laredoconcreteconstruction.com before the next storm takes more of it.
