When Stone Retaining Walls Fit a Frisco Yard
Natural stone and boulder walls are their own wall type, set apart from block, timber and poured concrete in two ways: lifespan and price range.
Stone walls can last up to 200 years. Concrete walls last 50 to 100 years and wood walls 10 to 40 years.
The price range is the widest of any wall type: depending on the project, $20 to $100 per square foot of wall face, installed.
Frisco’s housing is young. The median build year is 2009, and 40.0% of homes were built in 2010–2019. If a slope in your yard is where you want a wall that looks like natural stone, call or send the form and we will price it.
What Goes Behind Stone Retaining Walls in Frisco
The stone is what you see. Two things to look at behind and under the stone: the drainage and the footing.
Drainage. Basic drainage for a retaining wall is a perforated pipe at the wall’s base, gravel backfill and weep holes.
Why it matters. Without drainage, hydrostatic pressure builds behind a wall.
The footing. Footings that lack strength, and missing rebar, can make a wall fail early.
Clay soil. Walls built on clay often need extra reinforcement.
Wall type. Gravity walls rely on their mass to hold back soil, while cantilevered walls use reinforced concrete with an L-shaped footing and suit walls over 4 feet. Which approach fits depends on the height and the site.
The free on-site estimate looks at each of these for your yard. Call or send the form to set one up.
How Long Stone Retaining Walls Last in Frisco
Stone walls can last up to 200 years. That reaches higher than any other wall material: concrete tops out at 100 years and wood at 40.
Clay soil can be very problematic for retaining walls. The largest soil mapped in Collin County is a clay with high shrink-swell potential, so the soil along the wall line is one of the things checked on site.
Upkeep is simple: clean the weep holes yearly and send downspouts away from the wall.
If you already have a stone wall that is leaning or bowing, leaking or seeping, cracking, showing efflorescence or shifting at its foundation, see the retaining wall repair page, then call or send the form.
What Stone Walls Cost
Depending on the project, a natural stone or boulder wall runs $20 to $100 per square foot of wall face, installed. Where your wall lands in that range comes down to the stone, the height and the site.
For comparison, block walls run $15 to $50 per square foot and timber $13 to $30. A typical complete retaining wall project of any material runs about $3,200 to $9,400.
These move the final price of a stone wall:
- height;
- length;
- access, since tight or difficult sites need more manual labor;
- slope, since sloped yards may need terracing, which can add 50% or more;
- soil, since clay-heavy soil can raise excavation labor by up to 50%;
- drainage;
- removing an old wall, at $15 to $30 per linear foot.
The retaining wall cost page compares stone with every other wall type. Your price is set at the free on-site estimate, so call or send the form.
Permits and Engineering for Stone Retaining Walls in Frisco
Frisco’s code says no permit is required for a masonry retaining wall less than 24 inches tall. Ask the city whether your wall counts as masonry. A retaining wall taller than 36 inches must follow a design submitted by a registered engineer, and no part of a retaining wall may interfere with or alter a drainage swale between lots.
The permit fee is $150 per wall, paid to Development Services, Building Inspections, and the city doubles the fee when work begins before the permit is obtained. An engineered design runs $500 to $750 per wall, or $100 to $220 per hour.
Contractors need a valid Frisco contractor registration and a permit to work in the city. If a fence will sit on the wall, posts attached to or supported by a retaining wall need foundation and anchorage that keep the wall from moving. Rules change, so confirm with Building Inspections before you build.
What the Free On-Site Estimate Checks
When we come out for a stone wall, we look at:
- the height and length the wall needs, which set the permit and engineering requirements;
- where water comes from and where it can drain, including downspouts and swales between lots;
- the soil along the wall line;
- access for equipment and stone;
- any old wall that has to come out first.
Call us Mon–Sat 8–6 or send the form, and we will set up your free on-site estimate.