· 7 min read
When folks call us about a retaining wall, one of the first questions is always the same: what should it be made of? Stone? Block? Brick? Big boulders? The honest answer is it depends on your slope, your soil, your home, and your budget. Here's how we think about it.
Natural stone: the one people stop and look at
Mortared natural stone is the premium choice, and it shows. Every stone is hand-selected and set by a mason, so no two walls are the same. It suits character homes in Fort Langley, higher-end properties in South Surrey, and anyone who wants the wall to be a feature, not just a function.
It's the most labour-intensive option, so it's not the cheapest. But built right, on a proper footing with drainage, a natural stone wall outlasts everything around it and only looks better with age.
Boulders and armour stone: for the big jobs
When you're holding back real grade, a driveway bank, an acreage slope, a building pad, big armour stone and natural boulders are hard to beat. They bring sheer mass to the problem. We set them with machinery, key them into a proper base, and lean them back into the hill so they stay put.
This is the go-to out in Aldergrove and up the hillsides in Maple Ridge, where the slopes are steep and the look suits a rural or treed property. Rugged, natural, and nearly indestructible.
Brick: classic and clean
Brick is a true mason's wall. Laid in a proper bond on a reinforced footing, it brings a clean, traditional look that suits heritage homes and matches existing brick on a house. It's ideal for low garden walls, raised beds, and front-yard terracing where you want something crisp and timeless.
We work in new brick or reclaimed brick when you want that weathered, been-here-forever character. Either way, it gets weep holes and drainage so water doesn't work the joints loose over time.
Concrete block and segmental: tall, modern, engineered
For taller walls and heavier loads, reinforced concrete block and engineered segmental systems are the workhorses. With grouted cores, steel, and geogrid reinforcement tied back into the slope, they handle serious height. They also give you clean, modern lines that suit the newer builds going up around Willoughby and Clayton Heights.
Once a wall gets past about a metre or holds a load like a driveway above it, this is usually the engineered answer, and it gets a proper stamp and permit.
So which one?
Here's the short version. Want it to look beautiful on a nice property? Natural stone or brick. Holding back a big rural slope? Boulders. Need a tall, engineered wall with clean lines? Reinforced block or segmental. Most yards end up with a mix, a block wall doing the heavy lifting where it's tall, stone or brick where people actually see it.
The good news is you don't have to figure this out alone. Send us photos of your slope or yard through the contact form, tell us what you're hoping for, and we'll walk you through the option that fits your property and your budget. No pressure, no upsell.