Structural retaining walls
Structural retaining walls in
Ventura and Los Angeles County
Cast-in-place and shotcrete walls for hillside lots, cut slopes and the grade changes between them.
What this covers
Engineered walls that hold back earth where the ground changes level, built in cast-in-place concrete or shotcrete to a structural engineer's design. The wall is founded on a footing sized against the ground it bears on, reinforced through its full height, and drained behind the face so that water does not collect against the back of it.
EMAE & Sons Inc works across Ventura, Los Angeles and Orange County. A retaining wall sits on both sides of a licensing boundary: Class A General Engineering covers the excavation and the earth the wall holds, and Class B General Building covers the structure standing on or behind it. Holding both on one license means the cut, the wall and the backfill are one contractor's responsibility rather than a line between two.
- CSLB license
- #1107216 — Class A, B, C-36
- Office
- Thousand Oaks, CA 91360
- Local service area
- Thousand Oaks · Newbury Park · Westlake Village · Agoura Hills
What we build
Hillside lots and cut slopes
Land cut into a slope to make a level building pad, where the face left behind has to be held permanently rather than battered back.
Grade changes across a site
Where a lot steps between levels and the change is too steep, or too tight for the space available, to be carried as a planted slope.
Walls carrying a load above them
A wall with a driveway, a parking area, a structure or a filled slope behind it carries a surcharge, and is designed against that load rather than against the earth alone.
Walls at a property line
Where the retained earth stops at a boundary, so the wall, its footing and the drainage behind it all have to be built within the lot.
Replacing a wall that has failed
Where a wall is leaning, cracked or moving, and what replaces it is designed against whatever moved it rather than rebuilt to the same detail.
Walls inside a foundation package
Retaining structures placed under the same contract as the excavation, footings and slab rather than let as a separate trade after the fact.
Why is a retaining wall leaning or cracking?
A wall that leans or cracks has usually been moved by something behind it. Establishing what moved it comes before deciding what replaces it.
Water standing behind the face
A wall designed to hold earth is not necessarily designed to hold earth and water together. Where the drain behind it has blocked, or was never built, saturated ground pushes far harder than the same ground dry.
A footing on the wrong ground
The footing carries the wall and everything the wall is holding. Where it bears on fill, on soft ground or on material that moves with the seasons, the wall rotates rather than cracks in place.
A load that arrived afterwards
A driveway, a pool, a structure or imported fill placed behind an existing wall adds a surcharge it was not designed against. The wall is then carrying a load that was never part of its design.
EMAE & Sons establishes what moved a wall before pricing a replacement, and looks at the drainage and the ground behind it rather than at the face alone. Where the cause sits behind the wall, it is identified in the quote, including where doing so enlarges the scope beyond the work that was asked for.
Cast-in-place and shotcrete walls
Both are reinforced concrete walls built to the same engineer's design intent. What separates them is how the concrete reaches the steel, which is decided by the access on site.
Cast-in-place
Formed in timber on both faces, reinforced through the full height of the wall and poured into the form, in lifts where the wall is deep. It needs working room behind the wall for the back form and its bracing.
Shotcrete
Concrete conveyed through a hose and placed against the reinforcement at velocity, so the cut face itself acts as the back of the wall and only the front is formed. That makes a wall buildable tight against a slope, or where there is no room behind it at all.
Drainage and backfill
A drain is run behind the wall and the backfill placed in layers against it. Both are covered as soon as they are complete, so they are checked before backfill rather than after.
Wall thickness, reinforcement and the size of the footing are set per job by the structural engineer's drawing and the soils report behind it. EMAE & Sons does not publish typical values, because the figure that matters is the one specified for your wall and the ground it stands in.
When a wall needs a permit and an engineer's design
A retaining wall becomes permitted work once it passes the height the city sets, or once anything is carried above it: a driveway, a structure, or filled ground. The threshold is set by the city rather than by a single statewide figure, and it is established before a wall is designed rather than after.
EMAE & Sons applies for the permit as the licensed contractor, builds to the engineer's drawing, and leaves the reinforcement open for inspection before any concrete covers it. Where a wall is being replaced, the permit and the design are worked out against what is already there rather than against a clear site.
Who this is for
Work we are the right contractor for
- Owners and architects with a cut slope, a hillside lot or a grade change that has to be held
- Projects where a structural engineer is already engaged and the wall design exists
- Walls carrying a driveway, a structure or filled ground above them
- Owners who want the excavation, the wall and the drainage behind it under one contract
What we do not take on
- Segmental block, boulder and timber landscape walls
- Structural engineering design — we build to an engineer's drawings, we do not produce them
- Patching or facing a wall that is moving, without establishing what moved it
EMAE & Sons Inc works on commercial and residential property under the same license. A wall holding a private hillside lot and a wall holding a commercial pad are the same scope of work, built to the same drawing and inspected the same way.
Questions about retaining walls
Does a retaining wall need a permit?
A wall needs one once it passes the height the city sets, or once it carries a load above it. EMAE & Sons Inc treats retaining walls as permitted work: the firm pulls the permit as the licensed contractor, builds to the engineer's design, and books the inspection before any reinforcement is covered. The threshold is set by the city rather than by a single statewide figure.
What is the difference between a shotcrete and a cast-in-place retaining wall?
Both are reinforced concrete walls, and EMAE & Sons Inc builds both. A cast-in-place wall is formed in timber on both faces and the concrete is poured into the form. A shotcrete wall is placed by conveying concrete through a hose and applying it against the reinforcement at velocity, so only the front face is formed. That makes it workable directly against a cut face, or on a slope where formwork cannot be set behind the wall. The engineer's design and the access on site decide which is used.
My retaining wall is leaning. Does it have to be replaced?
That depends on what moved it. EMAE & Sons Inc establishes the cause before quoting a replacement. A wall leans because something behind it changed: water collecting where a drain has blocked or was never built, a footing bearing on ground that will not carry it, or a load added above the wall after it was designed. Rebuilding to the same detail in the same place reproduces the same failure, so the cause is established first.
Does EMAE & Sons build garden or landscape walls?
No. EMAE & Sons Inc builds engineered structural retaining walls in cast-in-place concrete and shotcrete, designed by an engineer and built under permit. Segmental block, boulder and timber garden walls are landscape construction and belong with a landscape contractor. Where a wall is decorative rather than structural, we will say so rather than quote it.
Related services
Send us the slope and the drawings
Photographs of the slope and of the existing wall if there is one, the address, and the engineer's drawing and soils report where they exist. That is enough for EMAE & Sons to tell you whether the wall needs a permit and what has to be established before it can be priced.