Retaining Walls & Custom Stonework

A retaining wall is almost never just about holding back soil. The decision to add a wall is usually a design opportunity — raising a planting bed to eye level, carving a terrace out of a sloped yard, defining the edge of an outdoor room, or creating a stone feature that gives the landscape structural identity. We approach walls and stonework as a landscape-composition decision first, structural second.

On Treasure Coast properties the common work is low to mid-height retaining for grade transitions, raised planter walls that bring specimen plantings up to eye line, seat walls defining a paver patio, and custom stone details that give a space character. Each application affects — and is affected by — the broader landscape, so we scope walls alongside planting and drainage rather than in isolation.

Material matters. Segmental concrete block (Belgard, Keystone, equivalent) gives you crisp lines, modular layout, and quicker installs — strong for formal landscapes. Natural stone — fieldstone, boulder, cut stone — reads richer and feels custom; it costs more and takes longer but earns it on the right property. Travertine and cut stone fit more formal architecture. We'll walk through the honest trade-offs for your specific project rather than pushing whatever's in the yard.

Drainage behind the wall is where most failed retaining walls go wrong. Water pressure, not soil weight, is what topples walls in year three or four. We detail drainage stone and perforated pipe behind every wall over roughly two feet, tied into the broader site drainage so hydrostatic pressure never builds up. For custom features — a boulder outcrop, a hand-built step system, a fire-pit surround — we treat the piece as sculpture integrated into the planting plan.