A backyard slope that was the property's biggest drawback

The slope in this backyard was the thing the owners liked least about the property. It is one of the most common calls we take in Central PA, where very little ground is flat.

A hill is not a landscaping problem so much as a structural one. Before anything can be planted or paved, the grade has to be held, and held permanently.

The approach

Retaining walls are where hardscaping earns its name. Ours are built by SRW-certified installers, because a wall that is not engineered for the load behind it does not fail politely: it bulges, then it goes, and it takes whatever is sitting on top of it with it.

Levelling a slope buys you rooms. Once the grade is held, the ground above and below the wall becomes usable for a patio, a garden or a view, which is how a drawback becomes the best part of the property.

What we built

Walls to carve level space out of the hill, with the planting and stonework detailed to make the change of level read as deliberate rather than as engineering. Hardscape workmanship carries our lifetime warranty, and Techo Bloc products carry a lifetime warranty of their own.

The result

The owners describe the finished slope as a masterpiece and the crews as friendly and polite, which are the two halves of the job we care about. The work has to last, and the weeks it takes to build have to be bearable to live through.