Concrete block walls in Clovis CA - a wall built for the job it has to do

Maybe you're tired of replacing a wood fence, or the yard slopes and the dirt keeps creeping onto the patio, and if it's mostly a slope you're fighting, our page on retaining wall construction goes deeper. The price mostly follows how long and tall the wall is, whether it holds back soil, how easy it is to get block and concrete to the spot and how the top is finished. The schedule turns on the footing, since it has to be dug and poured before any block goes up, and on what we hit when we dig and how hot it is that week. You'll get your own figure when I come out for the estimate.

The first thing I figure out is whether your wall is just for privacy or has to hold dirt back, because those two are built very differently. If it's holding soil, the footing and the steel running through the block carry the load, so we plan them from the first measurement instead of trying to add strength later. From there we string the line, dig and pour the footing with steel standing up out of it to tie the wall down, then lay the block, fill the cores that carry steel with grout and finish the top with a coping, a cap that keeps water from soaking down into the wall. We clean up before we leave, so you're left with a wall and not a pile of broken block.

A block wall often ties into other work. If the block has to carry part of a house, an addition or a garage instead of screening a yard, that's foundation block wall installation, and it's planned around the weight of the building. And plenty of folks who want a wall around a patio end up wanting a grill counter too, so we can plan the wall and the outdoor kitchen masonry together and match them.

Whether a block wall at your address needs a permit isn't something I'll guess at, and when it does, we take care of it with the city or county office for your address and go over it with you at the estimate. The ground around here is usually fairly easy on a wall, since one county summary of soil survey data rates Fresno County's soils as low for shrinking and swelling, though that's a picture of the whole county and not a promise about your lot. On lots with Fresno series soil, there's typically a duripan, a hard cemented layer, about 24 inches down, anywhere from 14 to 36 inches, which can sit right where a footing wants to go. We find out where it is when we dig and plan the footing around what's actually there.

We're based in Clovis, and around here we see a lot of block going up for privacy along back property lines and to hold a yard where the lot steps down. The same kinds of calls come in from Madera down to Kingsburg and plenty of places in between.