You are searching for a retaining wall contractor in Calabasas because part of your lot has to be held in place. A cut bank may sit too close to the house. The yard may need a level terrace, or an old wall may have started to tip. We are based in Calabasas, and we build these walls as part of our structural work, starting with the grade the wall will stand on.
Three facts get your quote moving: the wall height you need, its rough length and what stands above it. Send those with the address and ask us to price the wall on your lot.
Wall jobs we take on across Calabasas lots
We take on four kinds of wall job. Each one starts from a different place on the lot.
A new wall holding a cut. The house or driveway sits close to a bank, and the bank needs support along its toe. Digging room is often tight, and that limits the wall types available.
A wall that makes level ground. You want a usable terrace where the yard falls away. Fill goes in behind the wall, and it adds weight the design has to carry.
Replacement of a failing wall. The old wall comes out in sections, and its soil may have to be held while that happens. A new footing and a working drain then go in. Replacement usually gives you a design you can read and a drain you know exists. We still look at repair requests, and an engineer's review tells us what a repair could do.
A wall carrying new work. A raised deck, an addition or a parking pad above the wall changes the load behind it. We design those together, because the wall and the structure share the same soil.
Lots in Hidden Hills, Agoura Hills and Topanga are a short drive from our Calabasas base and get the same walk.
What sets the price of your wall
Six items carry the number on a wall quote. Ours shows each of them with the quantity it assumes.
- Height and length. Soil presses harder toward the bottom of a tall wall, so added height grows the footing and the steel as well as the face. Length then repeats all of that along the run.
- Material. Poured concrete, concrete block and soldier piles build differently and carry different labor. Soil and digging room usually narrow the choice before appearance enters into it.
- Footing. Its width and depth follow the engineer's reading of your soil. Weak ground near the surface can move the design to drilled piers, and the drill rig then becomes part of the job.
- Drainage. Gravel, perforated pipe and an outlet the water can actually reach. A long run to a safe outlet shows up as its own quantity.
- Access. An excavator that can drive to the wall line costs far less per load than a crew carrying spoils up a side yard. A pump line for concrete and smaller equipment are priced here when the route calls for them.
- Engineering and permit. Calculations, any soils report, plan check and inspections. Your height, your load and the agency covering your address decide what applies, and we confirm that for the parcel before the quote goes out.
Our article on retaining wall cost goes deeper into wall types and cost lines.
Picking who builds it
A wall is hard to judge once it stands. The footing and the drain are buried, so the choice comes down to how a contractor talks before the job starts. These are the checks we would run on any bid, ours included.
- Questions about the soil come early. A bidder should ask for any soils report and say whether your wall needs one.
- The drain has a destination. Ask where the outlet ends and what that run costs. A blank answer means nobody has planned it.
- The engineer is named in the scope. Find out who coordinates the design and who answers when the trench looks different from the drawings.
- The license checks out. The Contractors State License Board has a public lookup by license number or business name. Run it before you sign.
- The bids match. Hold them side by side and compare height, length, footing and drain. A lower total often means a shorter drain line or a missing permit.
Walking the wall line, then the written quote
A builder meets you on the lot and walks where the wall will run. We measure the height at several points, because a grade rarely stays even along a wall. We look at what the soil shows on the surface, what stands uphill, where runoff collects and where a truck can stop. On a replacement, we note how the old wall was built and how it would come out.
If an engineer has to design the wall, we tell you at that visit and coordinate one. The quote then follows the design, with excavation, footing, wall, drain, backfill and any demolition on their own lines. Staging and export get lines too. When a number depends on what the trench reveals, the quote says what would change and how the change gets priced.
If the wall makes room for a raised deck, our decks and patios crew prices both together. Local notes sit on our Calabasas page.
What helps us quote your wall faster
- The street address, so we can check who reviews it
- A photo of the slope from each end of the planned wall
- Height and length, even if you paced them off
- Any survey, soils report or old wall drawings you hold
- What you plan to put on top or behind it, now or later
If your slope needs holding, call us or send the form with the address and those photos, and a builder will set a time to walk the wall line.