Retaining Wall Repair in Wellington Heights, Cedar Rapids
Wellington Heights is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Cedar Rapids. Victorians, Tudors, Craftsman houses, and American Foursquares went up here in the early 1900s, close to downtown, on gently sloping hills with short front yards. Short yard plus slope equals wall. That is why this neighborhood has more retaining wall per block than almost anywhere else in the city.
A Hundred Winters on One Wall
The walls holding these front yards are as old as the houses. They were built before a drain behind a wall was standard, so the backfill is native soil. Loess and clay hold water. Water in soil expands when it freezes, and a Cedar Rapids winter crosses the freezing line over and over rather than once. Each cycle moves the wall a hair. A century of hairs is a lean you can see from the sidewalk.
What We Can Reset and What We Cannot
Nobody straightens a leaned wall by pushing on it. The block or stone that moved also lost its bed and its line, and a straightened face hides the cause instead of removing it. A short section with a modest lean, sitting on a base that is still sound, comes apart and goes back together. A wall that has rotated forward, bulged in the belly, or dropped at the bottom course gets rebuilt.
Tight Access, Old Stone
Lots here are narrow and the walls sit right at the walk. We often work by hand or with a compact machine, and we save sound stone and block for the rebuild rather than hauling it off. Behind the new face go clean angular stone, filter fabric, and a pipe run to daylight.
Call (319) 555-0129 for a free estimate on retaining wall repair in Wellington Heights.