Brick is a mason's retaining wall
Brick walls get treated like decoration. They aren't, not if they're holding soil. A brick retaining wall needs a reinforced footing, a structural bond, steel where it retains, weep holes, and drainage behind the face. Glue-on brick or a single wythe stacked on dirt is a garden edge with a short life.
We lay brick the way a mason lays brick. New clay brick for a clean line. Reclaimed brick when you want the wall to look like it's been on the lot since the house went up. Fort Langley and the older pockets of Langley City are where this shows.
Garden walls, raised beds, and low retains
Brick shines under a metre. Raised beds, front-yard terraces, seat walls, property edges that need to look finished. You get a crisp cap, tooled joints, and a wall that matches a brick house instead of fighting it.
Taller brick retains are possible with reinforcement and a proper backup. Past a certain height, we often use a concrete or block structure and brick the face. Same look, better structure. We'll tell you which one your height needs.
Matching existing brick
Old brick varies. Colour, size, and mortar all shift with age. We take a sample or a clear photo and source the closest brick we can. Mortar gets tinted so the new work doesn't shout. Perfect invisibility is rare on a 60-year-old wall. A repair that disappears from the sidewalk is the goal.
Why brick walls fail in the Fraser Valley
Water in the joints. Soft mortar, no weeps, no drain behind. Freeze-thaw pries the face apart. That's the pattern we see. The fix is usually drainage first, then repointing or a partial rebuild. Sometimes the wall is too far gone and we take it down and lay it again on a real footing.
Forge Langley Retaining Wall Contractors would rather save a good brick wall than sell you a new one. If a repair will hold, we say so.
What's included
- Site assessment and layout
- Reinforced concrete footing
- Brick laid in a structural bond
- Steel reinforcement and grouted cores where the wall retains soil
- Drainage and weep holes
- Tooled, weather-struck joints
- Capping course or coping
- Cleanup and grade restoration
When you need brick walls
A heritage or traditional home
Brick suits character properties in a way modern block can't touch.
A low garden or raised-bed wall
Brick is ideal for crisp, low garden walls and raised planting beds.
Matching existing brickwork
If your home is brick, a matching wall ties the whole property together.
Our process
- 1
Lay out the wall
We set the line, the footing size, and the bond pattern before we start.
- 2
Pour the footing
A reinforced footing below frost depth gives the brick something solid to sit on.
- 3
Lay the brick
Course by course, reinforced and grouted where it retains, joints tooled clean.
- 4
Cap and point
We finish with a capping course, point the joints, and clean the face.
Why choose Forge Langley Retaining Wall Contractors for this
- True masonry bond and reinforcement, not brick glued to a block wall
- New or reclaimed brick to match your home
- Weep holes and drainage so water doesn't blow the wall apart
- Clean, tooled joints that hold up to Fraser Valley weather