Retaining wall construction in Bonita Springs FL - a wall that drains and stays put

At Select Bonita Springs Masonry & Concrete, a wall call is usually about one of three things. A yard is slumping toward the house or the neighbor, a bed washes out every time it rains, or an old timber wall has gone soft. We're based in Bonita Springs and build in the cities around it, north into Lee County and south into Collier County. The price moves with the wall's length and height, the material, how much digging and fill the slope takes, and whether an old wall has to come out first. The schedule depends on the wall's size, the utility marking before we dig and any permit the job needs. I measure it all on site and put your number in a written estimate.

Water building up behind a wall is what pushes it over, so we plan the drainage before we pick the block. I walk the slope with you and look at where the rain goes now and where it should go once the wall is in. Before anyone digs, we get the underground lines marked through 811, the call-before-you-dig service, and that takes a few days. Then we dig out, pack a firm base and set the first course dead level, because every course above it follows that one. We stack the block and fill behind it with drain rock so water has a way out instead of pressing on the wall. The soil goes back in layers, and we compact each one. We cap the top, grade the ground so it sheds water and clean up before we leave.

Sometimes the wall isn't the only masonry in the yard that needs attention. An older brick or stone wall that's worn but still sound may only need masonry restoration instead of a new wall. I'll tell you straight which way I'd go. If the new wall opens up a level spot for sitting outside, we can work fireplace installation into the same plan, on ground we've already compacted.

The city of Bonita Springs counts filling, grading and digging as development. A retaining wall that brings new fill onto your lot falls under its rules. When fill is added to a residential lot without a building permit, the city requires an application for a limited review development order. If your wall needs fill hauled in, plan on that step. When a job needs a permit, we check with the city's Community Development Department or the county office for your address and file it ourselves. We keep you posted, and work starts once the permit is in hand.

Lots here are usually flat enough that a few inches of grade decide where the rain ends up. That's why we set the drain outlet and the finished grade before the first block goes down. We plan walls the same way on jobs in Estero and Naples.