Retaining walls
Level ground on a hillside lot.
Half the lots in the Mission, Glenmore and West Kelowna slope. A good wall turns that slope into a terrace you can use, and keeps it there.
Drainage
Water knocks walls over, not soil.
When a wall leans, bulges or cracks, trapped water is almost always the reason. Wet soil is heavy, and frozen wet soil pushes harder still. So every wall we build drains:
- A first course buried below grade on a compacted gravel pad.
- Blocks that step back a little with every course, leaning into the hill.
- A zone of clear crushed stone right behind the wall, so water drops instead of pushing.
- A perforated drain at the base, run out to daylight or a dry well.
- Geogrid layers tied into the soil on taller walls.
When a wall needs an engineer
In Kelowna and West Kelowna, a wall taller than about 1.2 m, or one holding up a driveway, a building or a steep slope above it, needs a design from a professional engineer and usually a permit. We bring in the engineer, build to their drawings and have them sign off. Their fee is listed separately in your quote so you can see it. If a slope is too tall for one wall, we often design two shorter terraced walls instead.
Block or stone
Two ways to hold a hill.
Segmental concrete block
Engineered units with a lip or pins that set the lean for you. Predictable, strong, easy to curve, and the most common choice for walls over 0.9 m.
Natural stone
Stacked basalt or granite, or large placed boulders on bigger slopes. More character and blends into the hillside; each stone is set by machine or by hand, so it costs more per metre.
Prices
Retaining wall price ranges.
| Wall type | Per sq ft of face | Includes |
|---|---|---|
| Segmental block, up to 1.2 m | $65–$90 | Excavation, gravel pad, drain rock, perforated drain, cap units |
| Natural stacked stone, up to 1.2 m | $85–$125 | Stone selection on site, hand fitting, same drainage as block |
| Placed boulder wall | $70–$110 | Machine-set boulders; best on large sloped lots with machine access |
| Engineered wall, over 1.2 m | Quoted | Priced from the engineer's drawings; engineering fee shown separately |
Example: a 15 m long, 0.9 m tall block wall is about 145 sq ft of face, so roughly $9,400 to $13,000 depending on access and how many curves it has.
Got a slope you can't use?
Send us a couple of photos with the estimate request. We can usually tell you on the first call whether it is one wall, two, or an engineer's job.