My Potomac MD backyard floods, will a retaining wall help the yard drainage? We get this question on a regular basis from the clients we serve and it’s not hard to understand where the question comes from. Drainage issues can, depending on where you’ve got water pooling on your property, it can cause devastating damage in very short order. Not a happy situation.
If you’re suffering from any sort of drainage issue anywhere on your property and have been wondering the same thing, you’re in luck, and this article was written with you in mind. Read on, and we’ll answer the question in detail!
My Potomac MD Backyard Floods – Will A Retaining Wall Help The Yard Drainage?
The short answer to the question is yes. In the vast majority of cases, a well-placed retaining wall can be an integral part of solving for most drainage issues, because all properly built retaining walls have robust drainage systems built into their design. They have to, or the wall by itself wouldn’t be nearly as effective at keeping soil at bay and redirecting water.
What most people don’t realize though, is the fact that there’s not a single generic type of retaining wall. There are actually a number of different types of retaining walls, and depending on your specific needs, the lay of your land and the composition of your soil, one might be more appropriate than another. Here’s a quick overview of the different types of retaining walls we might build:
Sheet Pile Walls – An ideal choice for a retaining wall that needs to be built in a confined area and provide support for loose soils that shed water fairly quickly. These are usually made of steel or wood plank, and about two thirds of their height are buried, with only the top third visible.
Wooden Walls – Tend to be shorter and usually have about 40% of their height beneath the surface. They feature support beams spaced a minimum of one foot apart and are anchored into the soil itself for additional support.
Gravity Walls – Rely on their mass to hold back the soil and water. These tend to be resource intensive and constructed of heavier materials, being much thicker at the base and gradually thinning out near the top of the wall.
Cantilevered Walls – Structurally similar to gravity walls, but they require less material to construct because they feature a concrete base which extends deep into the soil.
As we said at the start though, a retaining wall, whatever form it ultimately takes, can play a pivotal role in whatever drainage issue you’re having the vast majority of the time.
At the end of the day, the question ‘My Potomac MD backyard floods, will a retaining wall help the yard drainage?’ is more complex than first meets the eye. Flooding is only one part of the issue. Granted, it’s the most visible and the most potentially damaging issue, but erosion control is important too, and long term, erosion on your property will only make your current drainage and flooding issues worse.
A well-placed retaining wall solves for both. Now that we’ve introduced you to the various types of walls we might construct on your property, let’s talk a bit more about exactly what they do.
