How a Landscape Designer Can Create Retaining Walls in Your Granite Bay, CA, Backyard

If you are considering adding a retaining wall to your Granite Bay, CA, backyard, a landscape designer can help you think through all of the details you want in a wall. While retaining walls can often serve a functional purpose, they can also bring an attractive focal element to your landscape.

What Is a Retaining Wall?

A retaining wall is a structure that is designed and intended to hold back earth in a specific location where there is a change in elevation. This can be in a yard with a gradual or steep slope that has excessive runoff when a rainstorm comes, or it can be in a yard that is difficult to mow or has unusable space because of a steep or difficult drop-off. A retaining wall is constructed to remedy the slope for better use of an outdoor space or to redirect storm runoff to a better location. 

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Types of Retaining Walls

While a retaining wall can fix a problem within your property, it can also provide a wonderful opportunity to transform the landscape with a beautiful wall composed of eye-catching stonework. 

Retaining wall for a steep slope: A retaining wall can be the ideal solution to water runoff from rainstorms that causes erosion in your yard. At times the water runoff can pour into a neighbor’s yard, creating damage there as well. 

A retaining wall is typically designed with water drainage in mind. Because water cannot pass through a wall, the landscape architect incorporates pipes to catch the water and divert it to a better location closer to a storm drain, as well as weep holes that allow the water to weep out gently. 

Retaining wall for a drop-off: A retaining wall does not have to follow a straight line—it can follow the shape of your property to remedy a drop-off that is preventing easy mowing and landscaping. This type of retaining wall provides not only clear areas that can be landscaped to maximize the beauty of your yard, but also can bring some horizontal definition to the landscape. A retaining wall can be curving or undulating to follow the natural line of a piece of land. 

Retaining Wall for Access

At times a property can have a slope that prevents accessing other parts of the land that you wish to use. Sometimes there is flatter space elsewhere in the landscape that is difficult to use for a children’s play area or a special garden because there is no true access. A retaining wall with steps can make this area accessible to any of your landscape plans.

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A well-planned retaining wall is not limited to the backyard. A wall with steps can also change the way visitors arrive at the entryway to your home, especially if the only access is from the driveway. You might want to have another access from the neighborhood sidewalk or from the street in front of your home, and a retaining wall with steps brings a safe and comfortable way for your guests to enter your home directly from the street. 

While a retaining wall can certainly resolve landscape issues, your landscape architect can turn that functional wall into a gorgeous landscape focal point with ambient lighting, strategic plantings, and wide stone steps. Consulting with a landscape architect on your Granite Bay, CA, retaining wall can an excellent investment in the long-term use of your property.