Home › Brick Retaining Walls
Superior Masonry Montgomery designs and builds brick retaining walls that stabilize slopes and frame outdoor spaces across Montgomery, AL. We focus on proper footings, drainage, and layout for long lasting performance. Enhance your landscape with walls that look great and hold up over time.
Superior Masonry Montgomery provides professional brick retaining walls throughout Montgomery, AL, Alabama and the surrounding area. Our licensed, insured crew delivers safe, clean, on-time work with a free estimate before anything begins. Call (334) 781-4198 or request your free quote.
Brick Retaining Walls Tailored to Montgomery Properties
Brick retaining walls do more than hold back soil. When designed correctly for Montgomery yards, they manage erosion from sudden Gulf storms, create level space on sloped lots, and add long term value to your home. At Superior Masonry Montgomery, we look at brick retaining walls as structural landscape features that must work hard every time it rains.
Our first step is always a site visit. We walk the property with you, note how water currently drains during heavy summer storms, and check soil type and slope. Many Montgomery neighborhoods sit on a mix of red clay and sandy loam, which moves and settles differently over time. Understanding your exact soil conditions helps us determine footing depth, drainage requirements, and whether we need soil reinforcement behind the wall.
From there, we discuss how you want to use the space. A brick retaining wall that supports a driveway edge in Pike Road will be designed differently from a low garden terrace wall in Old Cloverdale. We factor in vehicle or foot traffic, planting areas, and any future plans like patios or walkways so the wall can tie into those projects without costly modifications later.
How We Build Durable Brick Retaining Walls
Superior Masonry Montgomery follows a step by step process that focuses on long term stability in our local climate. After layout, we excavate for the footing to the depth appropriate for your soil and the wall height. In our region, true frost heave is minimal, but expansive clay and saturation during storm events are major concerns, so we dig deep enough to reach firm, undisturbed soil.
We then install a reinforced concrete footing sized to the wall height and expected load. Rebar is laid in a grid pattern and tied securely. Once the footing cures, we begin brickwork. For structural retaining walls, the visible brick is usually a facing over a concrete masonry unit (CMU) backing wall. This gives you the appearance of a full brick wall with the strength and cost efficiency of a reinforced block structure. The CMU cores are filled with concrete and rebar according to engineering needs.
The brick veneer is laid with full mortar joints, carefully tooled for water shedding. We pay close attention to brick bond patterns so that the wall is not only strong but visually balanced across its length. Where walls step down along a slope, each step is designed to keep the brick coursing level to the eye, which is more challenging than it looks and is often where cheaper builds show flaws.
Drainage and Erosion Control in Montgomery’s Weather
For retaining walls in Montgomery, proper drainage is not optional, it is essential. Our heavy downpours can quickly turn a poorly drained wall into a cracked or leaning structure. Superior Masonry Montgomery always incorporates drainage details specific to your site and to the expected water flow from neighboring yards, roofs, and driveways.
Behind the wall, we typically place a vertical layer of clean gravel against the CMU backing. A perforated drain pipe (French drain) is bedded in gravel at the base of the wall, sloped to daylight or connected to an existing drainage system. This relieves hydrostatic pressure that would otherwise push on the wall every time the soil becomes saturated.
We also use filter fabric between the gravel and native soil to prevent fine clay particles from migrating into the drainage zone and clogging it over time. At regular intervals along the wall face, we incorporate weep holes or discreet outlets so any water that reaches the back of the wall has a reliable path out. In backyards that see runoff from higher neighboring lots, we may recommend surface swales or catch basins to keep excess water from ever reaching the wall in the first place.
Brick Choices, Design Details, and Finishing Options
Brick retaining walls do not all look the same. In Montgomery, we see a wide range of styles, from historic red brick near downtown to lighter, wire cut blends in newer subdivisions. Superior Masonry Montgomery helps you choose brick that fits your home’s architecture and meets structural needs.
You can select from modular, queen, or engineer sized bricks, and we match color and texture to existing brick on your home when possible. For visible tops of retaining walls, we often recommend a contrasting brick soldier course or a cast stone cap. These caps not only create a clean finished line but also help shed water away from the wall face.
We discuss mortar color and joint style too. A slightly darker mortar can hide minor staining from irrigation, which is common near planting beds. Tighter, concave joints are usually best for exterior retaining walls because they resist water penetration and weathering better than raked joints. In seating wall applications around patios or fire pits, we pay special attention to wall height and top width so the wall is comfortable to sit on and integrates well with your outdoor living plans.
Costs, Permits, and What Affects Your Investment
The cost of a brick retaining wall in the Montgomery area is driven by more than just length and height. Soil conditions, access limitations, wall engineering, and drainage complexity all play significant roles. A straight, 3 foot garden wall with easy access for equipment will cost less per foot than a taller wall that supports a driveway or must be built in a tight backyard with hand excavation.
Superior Masonry Montgomery provides detailed written estimates that separate excavation, footing, structural wall, brick facing, and drainage components. This breakdown helps you understand where your money is going and allows us to adjust scope if needed. For walls that exceed certain heights or support structures, we may recommend or require engineering input, which adds cost but also protects your investment and ensures code compliance.
In Montgomery and surrounding jurisdictions, smaller landscape retaining walls often do not require a formal permit, but larger structural walls or those near property lines might. We advise you on local requirements and, when needed, can coordinate with your engineer or builder. We also consider scheduling around our rainy seasons. Building during a particularly wet period can slow progress and increase site cleanup needs, so planning timing with weather patterns in mind can save both time and money.
Common Issues, Repairs, and How To Get Started
Homeowners in Montgomery often call us after a retaining wall built years ago starts to lean, crack, or bulge. Common causes include lack of drainage, inadequate footing, or walls that were never designed to handle the load behind them. When we evaluate an existing wall, we look for stair step cracks in the brick, separation between the wall and adjacent paving, and soil wash out behind the wall.
Sometimes, we can relieve pressure by improving drainage and adding buttresses or tie backs. In other cases, full replacement is the safer long term option. When replacing a failed wall, we salvage usable brick if you want to reuse it for accent courses, which helps maintain continuity with older parts of your property. We also correct grade issues that may have contributed to the initial failure.
To get started with a new brick retaining wall, you can contact Superior Masonry Montgomery for an on site consultation. We will measure, discuss design ideas and budgets, and outline a clear sequence of work so you know what to expect each day of the project. Our goal is a retaining wall that looks like it has always belonged on your property, handles Montgomery’s storms year after year, and gives you more usable, attractive outdoor space.
