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Legendary Masonry Allentown designs and builds brick retaining walls in Allentown, PA that control slopes and elevate your landscaping. We focus on solid foundations, proper drainage, and attractive brick patterns so your wall stays strong and looks refined.
Legendary Masonry Allentown provides professional brick retaining walls throughout Allentown, PA, Pennsylvania and the surrounding area. Our licensed, insured crew delivers safe, clean, on-time work with a free estimate before anything begins. Call 484-284-5120 or request your free quote.
Brick Retaining Walls Built for Allentown Terrain
Brick retaining walls in Allentown are not just decorative garden borders. On many local properties, they hold back soil on sloped yards, protect foundations from erosion, and create usable flat spaces for parking pads, patios, and walkways. Legendary Masonry Allentown focuses on brick retaining walls that actually perform under our freeze and thaw cycles, not just look good for the first year.
In the Allentown area, a lot of homes sit on hillsides or have stepped backyards, especially in neighborhoods with older housing stock from the early to mid 1900s. Those lots often have settled, leaning, or bowing old block or railroad tie walls. When we design a new brick retaining wall, we start by asking what the wall really needs to do: hold back a steep driveway cut, terrace a backyard, or simply edge a raised planting bed. That function determines the wall height, thickness, footing design, and whether we incorporate drainage features behind the wall.
Our approach is practical. We evaluate soil type, slope, nearby structures, and water patterns from downspouts and neighboring yards. That information drives whether a particular wall can be a simple gravity wall, or if it needs engineered reinforcement and a deeper footing. We are upfront about when a decorative brick veneer over a structural core is smarter than a full brick structural wall. The goal is a brick retaining wall that can handle real Allentown weather and soil movement without constant repair.
How We Build Brick Retaining Walls Step by Step
A proper brick retaining wall is much more than stacked units. Legendary Masonry Allentown follows a clear process so the wall holds up under load and over time.
Site evaluation and layout: We start by marking the exact line and finished height of the wall with stakes and string. We check for property lines, buried utilities, and how the new wall will tie into existing sidewalks, porches, or driveways. On older Allentown lots, we often discover remnants of old stone or cinder block walls that need to be removed or incorporated.
Excavation and base: We excavate a trench wide enough for the footing and working room. For most brick retaining walls, this includes removal of topsoil and any organic material, then compacting the subgrade. Depending on wall height, we either pour a reinforced concrete footing or prepare a compacted gravel base that meets the wall design. The base is leveled carefully, since any low spots telegraph through the entire wall.
Drainage installation: Before bricks ever go in, we install drainage behind the wall if the design calls for it. This usually includes a perforated drain pipe at the base that exits to daylight or a drain basin, washed stone backfill, and filter fabric to keep soil fines out. In parts of Allentown with heavy clay, this drainage step is crucial to avoiding frost heave and hydrostatic pressure that can crack a wall.
Wall construction: For structural brick retaining walls, we typically build a multi-wythe (multi-layer) brick wall, often tied to a concrete or block backup using wall ties. Mortar type is chosen to suit the brick and exposure. Every course is leveled and plumbed, and we pay extra attention to bond pattern so weight is transferred properly. Where height or loading requires it, we integrate rebar, filled cores, or concrete pilasters.
Finishing and cleanup: We tool the joints for weather resistance, clean off mortar smears before they cure, and grade the soil in front and behind the wall for proper runoff. If requested, we can cap the wall with brick or stone caps and integrate steps, planters, or railing posts. We leave the site clean and safe, not a pile of broken brick and dust.
Brick and Design Options That Work in Allentown
Brick retaining walls can look very different depending on the brick, layout, and how they tie into your home or building. Legendary Masonry Allentown helps you choose materials that both perform structurally and match the style of your property.
Brick types: For retaining walls we usually recommend a solid or nearly solid brick rated for exterior exposure, not a lightweight interior brick. You can choose from smooth face, wire cut, or tumbled textures. Many Allentown homeowners with older brick homes want a wall that does not look obviously new, so we often source brick that is similar in color and size to the existing structure, or we design a contrasting but compatible color instead of a near miss.
Wall structure options: For low garden and edging walls that do not retain much soil, we might build a single wythe brick wall on a smaller footing. For real retaining situations, we often use a concrete or concrete block core with brick as a facing, tied mechanically to the core. This lets us combine the strength and economy of block or concrete with the finished look of brick. In tighter urban lots, a slim reinforced wall with brick veneer can save a surprising amount of useable space.
Details and features: Caps can be brick on edge, precast concrete, or natural stone. We can integrate weep holes in a way that does not look like random missing joints, create recessed panels for lighting, or build in short brick steps between terraced levels. On steeper Allentown hillsides, we sometimes split a tall slope into two or three shorter brick retaining walls with planted terraces in between. This reduces soil pressure on each wall and looks more natural than one tall, imposing structure.
Costs, Estimates, and What Affects Pricing
Homeowners often ask why some brick retaining walls in Allentown cost much more than others. Legendary Masonry Allentown explains pricing in plain terms during the estimate so you know where your money is going.
Wall height and length: The taller the wall, the more structure and reinforcement it needs. Materials and labor increase not only because of more brick, but also because of deeper footings, more excavation, more drainage material, and in some cases engineered designs. A low 18 inch garden wall is a very different project from a 5 foot wall holding back a driveway cut.
Access and site conditions: Easy access from the street or driveway keeps costs down because material delivery and excavation are straightforward. Narrow side yards, backyards with no vehicle access, retaining walls next to neighboring fences, or walls on steep slopes can add labor and sometimes require hand excavation or smaller equipment. In older Allentown neighborhoods, we often have to work carefully around existing utilities and tree roots, which also affects time and cost.
Material choices and complexity: A straight brick retaining wall with standard brick and a simple cap costs less than a wall with curves, integrated steps, multiple tiers, or special order brick. Using a structural brick wall instead of a block core with brick facing may also change the budget. During your estimate we typically give you at least one cost efficient option and, when appropriate, a higher end design so you can decide where to invest.
Permits and engineering: In Allentown and surrounding municipalities, retaining walls above certain heights or near property lines may require permits or an engineer’s design. If engineering is needed, we coordinate with licensed professionals and include that cost transparently in the proposal, or we explain it so you can hire them directly if you prefer.
Common Problems With Older Retaining Walls and How We Fix Them
Many of our brick retaining wall projects in Allentown start with a failing wall that someone else built years ago. Legendary Masonry Allentown diagnoses the real cause of failure before recommending a fix, so you do not repeat the same problem.
Leaning or bulging walls: This usually comes from inadequate footing, poor drainage, or a wall that was never designed to hold the actual soil load. Sometimes we can relieve pressure with improved drainage and tiebacks, but often the only reliable solution is to remove and rebuild. When we rebuild, we upgrade the base, drainage, and wall structure so the new wall does not slowly lean the same way.
Cracked mortar and loose bricks: Repointing can extend the life of a structurally sound wall. We remove failing joints to appropriate depth, clean the joints, and pack new mortar that matches hardness and appearance as closely as possible. However, if cracks follow a diagonal pattern or bricks are shifting out of plane, that usually points to movement below or behind the wall, which is a structural issue rather than a cosmetic one.
Water and frost damage: Our region’s freeze and thaw cycles are tough on any retaining wall that traps water. Walls with no drain pipe, no stone backfill, or blocked weep holes tend to spall, crack, and heave. Part of our repair or rebuild approach is to manage water properly: rerouting downspouts away from the wall, adding or replacing drain tile, and ensuring that surface grading directs water away from the retained area, not into it.
We also address safety concerns. If a wall is bowing significantly or supporting a driveway or parking area, we will tell you when temporary shoring or restricted use is necessary until the wall is replaced. We treat these as structural elements that protect people and property, not just landscaping features.
Why Hire Legendary Masonry Allentown for Brick Retaining Walls
When you hire a contractor for brick retaining walls in Allentown, you are trusting them with structure, drainage, and long term appearance. Legendary Masonry Allentown focuses on walls that perform in real conditions, not just on paper.
Local soil and weather knowledge: We have worked on properties with fill soils, heavy clay pockets, and older stone foundations common in the Lehigh Valley. This matters because wall and footing design has to account for what is actually under your grass. We design for winter freeze, spring runoff, and heavy summer storms that can load a wall with saturated soil.
Straight talk and clear scope: During your on site visit, we explain what we see, what options you have, and what we would do if it were our property. If your project could be handled with a simpler solution, such as a shorter terraced system instead of one tall expensive wall, we will say so. Our written proposals outline footing, drainage, wall structure, brick type, and any caps or steps, so you know what is included and what is not.
Coordination with other work: Brick retaining walls often tie into sidewalks, steps, patios, or driveways. We plan the wall so it does not create awkward transitions or water traps around other features. If you are scheduling other trades like asphalt or landscaping, we can coordinate timing so your wall is built at the right stage.
If you are seeing signs of a failing wall or planning a new layout for your Allentown property, a short site visit is usually enough for us to give you real numbers and a realistic timeline. You end up with a brick retaining wall that looks appropriate for your home and does the structural work it is supposed to do.
