Landscape block walls
Landscape block walls across the Tampa Bay area
We set concrete block on a poured footer to hold soil back, square up a slope and give a yard a hard edge. Most people call these retaining walls, and we build them as landscape and grade walls.
During the work
01 What the job involves
Trench, footer, first course, then the run
The frames further down are one wall along the side of a house in the Tampa Bay area. It runs past a screen enclosure and down the property line, and the frames record it in the order the work happened.
- The trench goes in first. We dig out the line and level the bottom against a string before a single block is touched.
- A concrete footer poured in the trench. The block sits on that footer for the full length of the run, not on dirt that was there yesterday.
- The first course bedded in mortar. That course decides the line of everything above it, which is why the string stays up along the face of the run.
- Steel laid in the open cells. A length of rebar runs along the cells at the top of the course, and cells get packed with mortar around it.
- Block cut to what is already there. On this job the run had to pass a screen enclosure and stop on a property line, so the end pieces were cut on site.
- Landscape and grade walls. These hold soil and shape a yard. That is how we describe them and that is what the photographs show.
02 The wall going up
Six frames from one block wall
This is the only block wall job we have photographs of. The project page carries the whole set, including the stripped side yard and a close view down into an open cell.
Every frame here is from the build. No finished photograph of this wall exists and we are not going to borrow one.
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The trench dug along the line and the bottom leveled to a string. Block landscape wall, Tampa Bay area. -
The footer poured down the trench, with the first block and a bar already set at the near end. -
Block going down in mortar beside the screen enclosure, tub in the wheelbarrow, more block staged on the spoil. -
The course carried the full length of the side yard, with the rest of the block stacked at the far end. -
A length of rebar laid along the open cells at the top of the course, following the line of the wall. -
One cell packed with mortar around the steel, string line held along the face of the run.
03 How the work runs
Four steps from your call to the first cut
These four are the whole of it. We are not going to promise you anything past them.
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1
You get in touch
Send the form or call. Tell us the city and where the wall has to go.
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2
We come out
We walk the line, measure the run and go through the block with you.
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3
You get it in writing
The estimate comes to you written down, and it costs you nothing.
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4
We schedule and start
Once you approve the estimate, we put the job on the calendar and start.
04 Questions
Three things people ask about block walls
Do you pour the footer as well as lay the block?
Yes. Concrete is on our list next to the paving, so the trench, the footer and the block are all one job and one estimate.
How far do you travel for a wall?
Across the Tampa Bay area. We work out of New Port Richey and go into Pasco, Pinellas, Hillsborough, Manatee and Hernando counties.
Can we talk it through in Spanish?
Yes. We work in English and Spanish, on the phone and on site.
05 Related work
What usually turns up with a wall
A block wall rarely arrives on its own. These are the pages worth opening next.
- Concrete workFooters, slabs and sidewalks
- Paver patiosThe block edge that holds a patio in
- Pool decks and copingLow planter and grade walls around a deck
Tell us where the wall goes
Send the form with your city and the rough length of the run, or call and talk it through. Estimates are free, in English and Spanish.