It’s no surprise that landscapes in New Hampshire are rarely flat. Some might see this as a problem; at Rye Beach Landscaping we see grade changes as a design opportunity. Retaining walls provide a vertical accent to a landscape, providing a visual anchor to the surroundings or dividing elevations into outdoor rooms. As a design/build company, we rise to the challenge of creating not only a functional change in elevation, but the artistic element as well. Our retaining wall installers are skilled in a variety of retaining wall materials – concrete block, architectural concrete walls, and of course natural stone.
The best retaining wall material depends on your homes style and your budget. Natural fieldstone retaining walls are a specialty at Rye Beach Landscaping, and the favorite choice for many of our clients. To fit together a stone retaining wall piece by piece is time-consuming, however, so it is not always the most affordable option.
Landscape block is a more affordable alternative to natural stone. Although retaining wall block is uniform, the variety of colors and patterns help it nestle in nicely into a residential setting. Landscape retaining block is a modular system consisting of wall, stair, and cap units. Once the base is leveled it is “stack, cap, and glue.”
At Rye Beach Landscaping, we also offer a third option that many of our competitors don’t. With our experience and training as a Stone Makers dealer, we can provide our clients with an architectural concrete wall that is colored and shaped with unlimited possibilities. This architectural concrete product is incredibly strong, too – having a reinforced strength of over 10,000 PSI. A Stone Makers retaining wall can be a handy solution around ledge or unmovable obstacles.
Regardless of the material used to build a retaining wall, the strength of the wall depends on what’s behind the wall. There is an engineering science that retaining wall installers must know – unless they want to rebuild a failing wall! Water is the strongest force in nature. It must be redirected with proper drainage systems. It’s helpful to have a knowledge of the soil composition behind the wall to determine how far back to make the cut. Terraced walls, or retaining walls that support a load on top (like a parking lot), require extra reinforcement with the use of geo-grid.
With retaining walls, you only get one chance to do it right. Combining the artistic element of building a retaining wall with the science of soil engineering gives our clients the confidence to know their retaining wall will stand the test of time.
