Retaining Walls: A landscape feature that’s functional and beautiful!

Doctor FX knows there are many, many reasons for considering a retaining wall or walls on your proprty but here are three to consider:

• Prevent soil erosion: In Colorado Springs, sloping lots are particularly challenging. Rain and melting snow create runoff that often rushes pell-mell to places you don’t always like. The runoff takes valuable top soil with it, digs arroyos and channels into your property, and can pond flooding basements and lower areas of your yard. Your plants and trees need the water that Mother Nature brings and need the soil nutrients to remain healthy. When soil is compromised and your yard becomes as weathered as an old cowboy’s face, it is time for a makeover!
• Use your entire yard: Because of the slopes of yards in many Colorado Springs homes, some homes and businesses are not taking advantage of their entire yard. It is a little like owning a five bedroom house and only sleeping in one bedroom. Constructing an attractive modern retaining wall that uses strong durable materials and sound construction principles, can open up your entire property to a new and exciting looks. You can create a flat place to raise your own fruits and vegetables or plant award winning roses. You can create a nook under one of the pine trees in your yard where you can read a book or listen to meditative music. You can create a water feature (pond, stream, fountain, waterfall, etc.) that brings the sound of running water to your home along with the whispering wind. Retaining walls can make all your yard usable and enjoyable.
• Make your yard a place of beauty: Retaining walls need no longer be built with railroad ties and cinder blocks. They are usually made from natural and/or man made stone but can also utilize pavers, stamped concrete, bricks, flagstone and even steel or vinyl panels. They are not just long boring walls. They can have landing areas, include sculptured planters for plants and trees and include stairs that take you to different levels. Landscape FX can design and build your retaining walls with curves and bends or geometric rectangles and squares. A look at some of the photos on our Retaining Walls page here shows you some of the possibilities.

Landscape FX builds retaining walls with premium materials and superior construction techniques to provide our customers with an end result that looks good, lasts a long time and turn their yard into a miniature palace courtyard! Click here to learn more!

Landscape FX employs a retaining wall system called “geogrid” along with Amastone blocks to give customers spectacular options and choices of their wall’s look and functionality. This system is more economical than alternative approaches such as Cantilever and Counterfort walls. While there are height restrictions on retaining walls in Colorado Springs (no higher than four feet), the “geogrid system” of materials and installation is strong and effective and can be designed in multiple terraces to accommodate any elevation change or slope. The Amastone blocks have been approved by numerous State Departments of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration for walls from two to twenty foot tall. They also address a common problem with retaining walls … efflorescence. When you drive through town by the Air Force Academy you can see walls that have a white calcium coating on their surface. This is caused by moisture migrating through the wall to the outside of the block. Proper interior lining of your retaining wall can prevent this unsightly discoloration. You don’t want to have moisture transmitted discoloration to mar your otherwise beautiful yard.

Retaining walls are a specialty of Landscape FX and we stand behind our construction techniques, expertise and materials. Call us at 719.439.3169 and we can assess the slope of your lot and discuss ways you can prevent any damage to what you now have while making your home more beautiful and livable. Colorado Springs is set in an idyllic setting beneath Pikes Peak and our surrounding Rocky Mountains and we strive to make all our landscape installations improvements fit and compliment your natural surroundings and meet your personal vision!