Retaining Walls in Walton

Plots in Walton are often generous, and a slope that is barely noticeable across a lawn can still make it hard to place a table, a garden office or a play area. A retaining wall lets you cut and fill the ground into level terraces, so the garden works as a set of usable spaces rather than one long incline.

The view from the house matters as well. A tall wall right outside the kitchen window can feel oppressive, whereas the same height split into two lower walls, with a strip left between for you to fill, keeps the outlook open. We peg out the levels with string so you can stand on each one before anything is dug, and if a garden building on an upper level will need power, a duct laid behind the wall during the build saves digging it up later.

On larger gardens the design matters as much as the build. We think about where each level should sit, how you move between them and where water will go once the slope is broken up. Typical reasons for a wall here include:

• Creating a flat terrace near the house for dining and seating.
• Forming a level platform for a garden office, studio or summer house.
• Splitting a long garden into a lawn level and a lower or upper area.
• Retaining soil beside a driveway or a side path that runs along a slope.

Every level needs a wall that will stay put. That means a concrete footing on firm ground, sized for the wall's height, and drainage behind it so water passing down the slope does not build up and push. Free draining backfill, weep holes and, where needed, a perforated pipe running along the base carry water to a suitable outlet. On a big garden with several walls, getting this right at each level stops one terrace draining onto the next.

If you already have walls that are leaning, bulging or weeping water across the face, we look at those first, because adding new levels around a failing wall is rarely a good idea.