Retaining walls fail for one dominant reason: water pressure behind the wall. Yards hold water for one dominant reason: the grade does not move it anywhere. Both are drainage problems wearing different clothes.
What a retaining wall is actually resisting
A retaining wall holds back soil. Saturated soil is heavier than dry soil and pushes considerably harder. Without a way for water to escape, pressure builds behind the wall until something gives — leaning, bulging, or separation at the joints.
That is why a properly built wall includes drainage aggregate behind it, a drain line to carry water away, and a compacted base beneath it. None of it is visible in the finished product, and all of it determines how long the wall lasts.
Signs of a wall in trouble
- Leaning or bulging, particularly in one section.
- Blocks separating at the joints.
- Soil or water escaping through the face.
- Settlement in the ground above the wall.
Why yards hold water
- Grade. Ground that slopes toward the house instead of away from it.
- Compacted soil. Common after construction, and slow to absorb water.
- Downspouts discharging too close. One of the most common and most fixable causes.
- A low point with nowhere to drain. Water arrives and has no exit.
What correction involves
Regrading to establish positive slope away from structures, and giving water a defined path — a drain line, a dry well, a swale, or extending downspouts well away from the foundation. On some sites it is a small correction; on others it is genuine earthwork.
Where to start
Watch your property during a heavy rain and note where water arrives, where it sits, and where it goes. That observation is more useful to a contractor than a description of the dry-weather symptom, and it is free.