Not every wall that looks like it leans is failing. Segmental walls are built with a deliberate setback per course, so a consistent backward tilt into the slope is correct. What matters is whether the face has moved forward since it was built, and whether it is still moving, and both of those are measurements rather than opinions.
A wall that tilts forward evenly from the base up has usually slid at the bottom course, which means the base under it was never built to resist the outward push or has washed.
A wall that is straight at the top and bottom but bellies out in the middle has a different story: the courses there have been pushed out individually by saturated fill, and that is almost always a drainage failure rather than a base failure.
The two need different work at different depths, which is why the shape gets read before anything is quoted.
We also record an actual number, the distance the face sits off plumb at the worst point, and give it to you, because the single most useful thing you can know about a wall is whether that number is the same next autumn.
A wall that has settled and stopped can often be left alone. See how a wall rebuilding corrects both, what wall caps do once the top course shifts, and how grading and slope above a wall changes the load on it.
Leaning Walls
How It Runs
Four steps to knowing if your wall is still moving
Read the shape
An even forward tilt and a belly in the middle mean different failures at different depths, so the shape decides the scope.
Plumb the worst point
We measure how far the face sits off plumb and write the number down, so it can be compared rather than remembered.
Check the design setback
Segmental blocks are built to lean back a set amount per course. Some of what looks like lean is the wall doing what it should.
Give you the reading
You get the measurement and where it was taken, so next autumn you or we can check the same spot and know whether it has changed.
Still Or Settled
A wall that stopped moving may not need rebuilding
Walls sometimes move once, to the point where the soil behind reaches its own equilibrium, and then sit there for decades. A wall like that is ugly rather than urgent. The way to tell is a recorded measurement and a year, which is why we leave you the number instead of a verdict.
If it has not changed by next autumn, you have your answer. See what a wall rebuilding costs if it has, how wall caps let in the water that starts it, and what grading and slope does above the wall.
A recorded plumbTold by
One yearInterval
It may need nothingIf it stopped
Related Work
Other retaining wall work in Toronto
What a leaning wall usually needs looked at alongside.
No, that is probably the design. Segmental blocks are built with a setback per course that leans the wall into the slope, and a consistent backward tilt is correct.
By having the lean measured and written down. Compare the same point next autumn. A number that has not changed in a year is a wall that has settled.
A lean tilts evenly from the base, which usually means the bottom course slid. A bulge in the middle means saturated fill pushed those courses out, which is drainage.
It depends on height, lean and what is above it. A half metre garden wall leaning slightly is cosmetic. A two metre wall holding a driveway is a different conversation.
Not honestly. The soil behind has already occupied the space, so it has to come down, the fill has to be corrected and it goes back up.
Put a mark on the cap and a matching one on a fence post or step behind it, then photograph the pair. A month later the photograph answers the question better than memory does, and it takes two minutes.
