Town of North Hempstead - Retaining Wall (house, contractor)

[Jyang427]

Hi all, I am a first time home owner looking to improve my yard. My backyard is sloped down slightly. I am hoping to build a retaining wall to keep the soils in and prevent run offs. I did some research and learned that I can probably build a retaining wall myself. That will help a lot as we dont have that much money to have professionals to come for everything.The danger in that is everything always looks easy on videos and when it comes to time to execute, I m concern I might not know everything. From your experience, is it an easy DIY?

[nuts2uiam]

While I have no direct experience building one, I have some experience with soil retention and water. Unless, you have a full understanding of the slope and what the impact of changing it will do relative to water and run off, you might be biting off a bit more than you can chew. Of course it is understood that I have no idea of the actual property so I could be making a mountain out of a molehill. For example, my former neighbors replaced a sidewalk that was on the common side of our homes next to the garage. We never had a problem until they replaced the sidewalk then we had a ton of problems. The slight pitch difference caused the side yard to become soaked when the downspouts released the rain. We wound up having to install a couple of drywells and a drain to avoid basement water seepage.

[Jyang427]

Thanks! I am now revisiting this topic because my house is slowly settling. Did any of you go through the process (putting in permit, hiring engineer and contractor) for a retaining wall? Any recommendations?