Berkeley and Oakland have a world class beauty in their verdant hills. But building on a hillside comes with many frustrations that become all too clear during rainy weather. If it isn’t a sloping crawlspace or deep basement filling up with water, then hillside homeowners are likely seeing their essential retaining walls crack, lean and list, or lose soil underneath their footings causing critical erosion and structural damage.
Some retaining walls are essential to the support of the soil around your house foundation. Even a wall built away from the house holds the ground level and makes your yard usable. But when a retaining wall begins to crack and lean, it’s only a matter of time before it fails completely and compromises the footing around your home. Plenty of Berkeley and Oakland homeowners have retaining walls constructed with pressure treated posts and lagging boards. Pressure treated wood was touted as being resistant to moisture, but today we are finding more and more instances of walls failing where water has cause pressure treated wood to soften and rot. Upgrading retaining walls by constructing them with reinforced concrete is a professional approach to the persistent issue of downhill movement.
There are multiple ways to retain soil around the yard, and even inside crawlspaces. It’s important that homeowners can choose a solution that is not only structurally effective, but also works to suit their budget. Henry Ward Construction has experience building walls from reinforced concrete, stacked concrete block, and using pressure treated lagging supported by steel posts. For the best solution that works how you need it to, you should contact Henry for a site visit. We can work with you to find a pragmatic solution to the issues of hillside movement that threaten your home and yard.