Soil sliding toward your driveway or a slope washing out after rain? We build a wall that keeps the ground where it belongs.
Retaining wall construction in Brownsville means building a wall of block, stone, poured concrete or boulders where your yard changes height, so the soil stops creeping toward your patio, driveway or house.
Most people call when dirt washes onto the patio after a hard rain, an old timber edge starts bowing out, or a slope gets too steep to mow. Nine times out of ten there's water behind it, pushing, and that's the first thing I look for, because a wall that ignores the water is a wall you'll pay to build twice.
The price moves with how tall and how long the wall runs, what it's built from, how much dirt has to come out, what drainage it needs and how easy it is to get the work to it. The schedule mostly turns on the permit step and dry ground, and before we dig we check what the city wants on your wall, pull the permit when one's needed and call for the inspections. Once I've seen the slope, you get a written price for the wall we talked about.
You call or send the form, and from there it's me and my crew start to finish. No salesman, no handing you off.
I come out, look at the grade, ask what you've been seeing after a rain and check what sits near the wall line. I learned under an old-school mason who made me tear out any joint that wasn't right, and I've run this business in Brownsville since 2023.
After the visit you get the price in writing for the height, length and material we talked about. If I think your wall can wait, I'll tell you that straight instead of selling you a job you don't need.
If you go ahead, we sort out what the city or county office for your property wants before any digging starts. Then our own crew builds it with me on site running the work, we're licensed and fully insured, and I walk the finished wall with you. Satisfaction guaranteed.
We figure out where the water's going before we figure out the wall, on top of the ground and under it, because water is what pushes walls over. A block wall design manual treats handling underground water and steering surface water away as key design steps, since that cuts the chance either one damages the wall. Next we look at what's around it, like a driveway, a fence, a pool, property lines, easements, utilities and the slopes in front of and behind the wall, because each of those changes the design. Where the soil swells when it's wet and shrinks when it dries, that swell pressure puts added stress on the wall, so the design has to allow for it. One installation guide says to learn the local code first to see whether a wall needs engineering, then follow the approved plans strictly if it does, or the block and reinforcement makers' design charts if it doesn't.
A new wall often gets people looking at the rest of the property. If the brick on the house is cracked or the mortar is wearing out, we handle masonry restoration too, and when a terraced yard turns into an outdoor living space, we also do fireplace installation.
Once the permit side is settled, the build goes in this order. Skip a step and it shows up later as a lean or a bulge.
The 8-1-1 Call Before You Dig service marks underground lines a few days before anyone digs, so we leave room for that at the start. Then we stake the wall where it'll actually sit.
We dig down, pack the base and set the first course dead level, because every course above it follows that one. A crooked bottom row never straightens out.
In a reinforced block wall, the soil reinforcement goes in flat layers between courses to tie the wall and the ground behind it together, so it holds against the push. The drainage goes in as we climb, not as an afterthought.
We backfill behind the wall and clean up the site before we leave. The installation guide advises keeping heavy construction equipment at least five feet behind the face of a finished wall, so tell any pool or concrete crew coming later.
Call (956) 505-5518, Mon to Fri 6 AM to 10 PM and Sat to Sun 8 AM to 10 PM, or send the form with a few photos of the slope and a note about any road, building or pool close by. We get back to you within one business day, and I come out to give you a free estimate on site with no obligation.
(956) 505-5518Building a retaining wall in Brownsville usually costs about $15 to $45 per square foot of wall face. Where yours lands depends on the material, the height, the digging and the drainage it needs. I'll give you a written price once I've seen your slope.
Walls 4 feet or under, footing included, are on the city's list of work that doesn't need a permit, unless the wall is supporting a surcharge. A taller wall, or one holding a surcharge, isn't on that list, so ask the city's Building Permits and Inspections Division at 956-546-4357, and ask them what counts as a surcharge for your wall. The division inspects when the permit holder asks for it, so when we pull the permit, we call for each inspection.
For most yards I'd go with interlocking block, because its line can be corrected or moved during the build, which you can't do once a poured concrete wall is cast. If the wall needs to bend around a tree or a pool corner we didn't expect, we can adjust it right there. A Brownsville cost guide puts boulder and poured concrete walls at the high end and railroad tie and cinder block walls toward the low end.
A lot of the walls we're asked about here aren't tall. They hold back a couple of feet of fill beside a driveway, a raised patio or a pool deck, where the yard was built up and the rain keeps carrying it off. Short or not, they get the same water check and the same level base as a big wall, because a short wall that leans looks just as bad.
We're based in Brownsville and work across the Rio Grande Valley cities around it, including San Benito, Harlingen, Los Fresnos and Port Isabel, along with others nearby. Wherever the job is, we check what that city or county office asks for before we start.
Tell us roughly how tall the wall needs to be, and we can tell you early whether the permit step is part of your schedule, so call (956) 505-5518 or use the contact form.
If the slope behind your house has you wondering what's holding it up, send us a few photos and we'll talk it through.
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