A retaining wall holds back soil that wants to move downhill, and it keeps the flat ground above it flat. We build retaining walls in Petaluma and across Sonoma County, on hillside lots and along steep driveway cuts. Most of them go in along a driveway edge, or where a yard drops off below a house pad. We work in block and in stone, and we size each wall to the height and load of the bank.
Richard Stanley is a third-generation paving contractor, and his son works alongside him on the same crews today. We have paved Sonoma County since 1988, and hill work has been part of the job the whole time. A retaining wall is often one piece of a bigger job, like a new concrete driveway cut into a hill. Tell us the height and the length of the bank you need held back when you request an estimate.
Tell us about your project and we will get right back to you.
Cut into a hill for a driveway or a house pad, and you are left with a raw dirt bank. Left alone, that bank slumps through the winter and sheds mud and rock down onto the pavement below. A retaining wall takes the push of that soil and holds the cut at a steep and stable face. The wall carries the hill, so the driveway or the pad you paved above it stays level and whole.
A wall also gives you back ground you can use, and that matters on a property that runs uphill. A slope too steep to park on turns into a level pad or a wider turnaround for trucks. Height drives the rest of the plan, from the footing under the wall to the drain rock behind it. Taller walls can need an engineer and a permit, and we will tell you when yours falls in that range.
Sonoma and Marin counties are hill country, and the flat, easy building sites in the North Bay went first. Driveways climb, and most of the house pads out here get cut straight into the side of a slope. Much of the ground under all of it is heavy clay adobe soil, the same soil the vineyards sit in. That soil swells when it gets wet and shrinks when it dries out, so the ground moves every year.
The wet season is when a slope tells you what it has been doing the rest of the year. Rain soaks into the clay, the bank gets heavier, and the pressure against the face of the wall climbs. That is when a bare cut starts to slump, and when a wall with no drainage starts to lean. We build for those months, because the wet season is the only real test a hillside wall ever gets.
Drainage decides whether a retaining wall lasts, more than the block or the stone you pick for the face. Clay soil holds water instead of letting it pass through, so the water stacks up behind the wall face. All of that water adds weight and pushes on the back of the wall until something has to move. So we backfill with clean drain rock and run a perforated pipe along the full base of the wall.
That pipe carries the water out to daylight or into the site drains, well away from the wall footing. We do the grading and drainage around the wall as part of the same job, on the same schedule. On a driveway job we shape the surface so runoff leaves the pavement and never ponds behind the wall. A low wall holding a slope above a concrete patio gets the same drain rock and the same pipe.
Clear written estimates across Petaluma, Santa Rosa & the North Bay.
(707) 217-0835From the first site visit to the final pass of the roller, here is how it goes.
We come see the site: the old surface, the ground under it, how water moves, and what the job really takes. No blind quotes over the phone.
You get a written estimate with a real number and a real timeline. It covers what is included, from grading and base rock to the finished surface, and it holds unless the scope changes.
Our own crew and equipment show up when we said and build the job the way we quoted it. Base first, then the surface, compacted and finished right.
Before we call a job done, we walk it with you. Clean edges, solid compaction, water running where it should. Done means you say it is done.
Common questions about retaining walls across Petaluma, Santa Rosa & the North Bay. Don't see yours? Give us a call.
New asphalt driveways, replacements and resurfacing for homes across Sonoma County. We handle the grading, the base and the paving with our own equipment and crew.
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Commercial paving for parking lots at offices, apartment complexes, retail centers, business parks and wineries, including striping and ADA layout.
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We sealcoat asphalt driveways and parking lots across Sonoma County. A fresh seal coat restores the black finish and slows sun and water damage.
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Asphalt repair and patching across Sonoma County. Potholes, cracked sections, overlays and resurfacing on driveways and parking lots.
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Concrete driveways, walkways, sidewalks, curbs, slabs and ADA pathways for homes and businesses, poured over a prepared base.
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Concrete patios and stamped concrete for homes across Sonoma County, poured by our own crew.
View DetailsRichard is a third-generation paving contractor, and his son works beside him on the crew. The family name is on the work, and the family answers the phone.
Most companies do one or the other. We install both, so you get a recommendation based on your property, not on the only material a contractor happens to sell.
Paver, rollers, dump trucks and compaction equipment, run by our own crew. The schedule and the quality stay in our hands from grading to the last pass.
Clay soils that swell in the winter rain and shrink all summer. We have paved on this ground since 1988, and we build the base for what it does.
A driveway past its best years, a parking lot due for new stripes, or a gravel road that needs real grading? Call or send the form. We will come look at the job and put a clear estimate in your hands, from the family that has paved Sonoma County since 1988.
Tell us about your project and we will get right back to you.
