Retaining Wall Builders in Winnipeg Since 2014
Anyone can stack block. What decides whether your wall is still straight in ten years happens before the first course goes down, and you never get to see it.
Heavyscape is a Winnipeg retaining wall contractor, and walls are a big part of what we do. Most of the calls we get sound the same. The back yard slopes and half of it is wasted, water runs toward the house instead of away from it, or a wall somebody else built has started to lean. We’ll come and look at it, tell you honestly what’s going on down there, and give you a price for the installation before you commit to anything.
- Building since
- 2014
- Rated on Google
- 5.0
- Working across
- Winnipeg and southern Manitoba
What A Retaining Wall Can Do For Your Yard
Nobody wakes up wanting a wall. They want the slope gone, the water going somewhere else, or a flat spot to put something on. The wall is how you get there.
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Turn a sloped yard into flat ground
If the back yard falls away and half of it is no use to anybody, a wall cuts it into level terraces. Same lot, twice the yard you can actually stand on.
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Send the water somewhere sensible
Water is what knocks walls over, and a lot of the time it is also the reason you need one. Behind every wall we build there is a plan for where that water goes, and the grading in front of it takes the rest away from your house instead of into it.
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Hold up a patio on a slope
A patio on a slope needs something holding the high side before any stone goes down. Wall first, then flat ground, then the patio sits on it and stays put.
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Raised garden beds and flower beds
A low garden wall turns a sloped strip along the house into a raised flower bed at a height you are not kneeling down to. Same block as a big wall, much smaller job.
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Under a fence, under a deck
Ground that drops away under a fence line leaves a gap and washes the posts out. A short wall under the fence holds the grade and closes it up. Same idea under a deck, where the soil has to be held back before anything gets built on top of it.
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A level pad for a pool
An above ground pool needs level ground and a lot of it. On a sloped lot that means a retaining wall on the high side and proper fill on the low side, done before the pool ever shows up.
Already have a wall that’s moving? Leaning, bowing out through the middle, cracks opening up between the blocks, or soil washing out the front are all the same story: something behind it is pushing, and the water has nowhere to go. Whether that’s a repair or a rebuild depends on why it moved. Send us a photo and we’ll tell you straight. Railroad tie and timber walls are their own story, and there’s a whole page on railroad tie retaining wall repair.
Recent Retaining Wall Work in Winnipeg
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What Winnipeg Ground Does To A Retaining Wall
Every wall on earth looks straight the week it’s finished. Around here you find out in year three.
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The clay moves
Winnipeg sits on heavy clay that swells when it takes on water and shrinks when it dries out. A wall built on it moves with it, unless what went in underneath was built to take that.
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Water is what pushes
Snow melts, the ground behind the wall soaks it up and has nowhere to put it, and all of that weight leans on the back of the block. That pressure is what tips a wall over. It is almost never the soil on its own.
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The frost goes deep
The ground freezes well below the surface here every winter and lifts whatever is sitting on it. A wall that went up quickly in June is one you hear about in April.
Which Materials Make Sense Here
Block, natural stone, timber, or big rocks. Block is what most Winnipeg yards end up with, because it’s predictable, it comes in colours that match paving stone, and it takes freeze and thaw well. Timber costs less up front and won’t last as long sitting in wet clay, which is a fair trade on some jobs and a bad one on others. Rocks and boulders suit a bigger, rougher slope where a straight line would look wrong.
Whichever retaining wall companies you end up talking to, ask every one of them the same three questions: how deep the base goes, where the water gets out, and what’s holding the top of the wall back. If somebody can’t answer those standing in your yard, keep looking. Ask us, and Jordan will walk you through it on your own job before you commit to anything.
What A Wall That Lasts Actually Needs
None of this is a Heavyscape invention. It is the published standard for segmental block walls, and it is most of what separates a ten year wall from a three year one.
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A compacted base under the first course
The block you can see is sitting on a granular pad you can't. The published range for segmental systems is roughly six to twelve inches of crushed stone, compacted hard and levelled front to back as well as side to side. Every course above it inherits whatever that pad does.
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Clear stone behind it, and a way out
Drainage stone against the back of the block, and somewhere for the water to leave at the bottom. This is the most common reason a wall doesn't make it through a Winnipeg spring. It's also easy to skip, since none of it is visible once the job is finished.
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Setback, so the wall leans into the hill
Segmental block is designed to step back slightly with every course, so the finished wall leans into the hill. That lean is doing structural work, and a wall built dead plumb doesn't get the benefit of it.
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Geogrid once it gets tall
Past a certain height, block on its own stops being enough. Geogrid is mesh laid back into the soil every couple of courses so the wall and the ground behind it move as one mass instead of two. Industry guides keep the unreinforced lift between layers to around eighteen inches.
One more thing the ground decides for you: a base can’t be compacted properly while it is frozen. Walls go in once it has thawed. That rules out a good part of the year here.
Do You Need A Permit In Winnipeg?
The City of Winnipeg exempts a retaining wall of four feet or less from a development permit, as long as there is no lot grading modification. Other conditions come with that exemption, including setback and floodway fringe rules, so the City’s own development permit list (opens in a new tab) is the thing to check against your address.
How A Retaining Wall Job Goes
Every slope is different, so the first thing we do is come and look at yours. Nothing here gets priced off a guess.
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Retaining wall estimate
Tell us what you're dealing with, send a couple of photos of the slope, and we'll come back with a realistic cost range. No site visit, no obligation, and nobody calls you until you're ready.
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On site, we work the wall out
If the range works, we walk the yard with you. How high it needs to be, where it runs, which materials, and how it meets the fence, the beds or the patio. Then a firm price in writing.
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Installation, start to finish
Excavation, base, drainage, block and cleanup by one crew. Nothing gets handed to a subtrade. Jordan (the owner) works on every job.
What Winnipeg Homeowners Say
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Great experience working with Jordan and Heavyscape. They landscaped both my front and back yards, installed pavers, built a fence, and constructed new stairs and a landing. Throughout the project they were flexible and thorough, approachable and easy to work with. Communication was excellent, the price was fair, and great quality of the work. Highly recommended.
mupayet
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Great experience with Jordan and his team. Communication was good and work on project was professional. Highly recommended. Would work with again.
Paul Laporte
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Great job! Good experience with planning, Jordan made improvements to our plan and the function is even better than we thought. Crew was friendly, organized and fast. Very happy with the experience and quality of the work.
CJ T
Retaining walls are one part of what we do with stone. Patios, fire pits, walkways and brickwork are all on the hardscaping services page .