Slope creeping onto your patio or an old wall starting to lean? We build poured walls with real drainage behind them, sized for what sits above.
A concrete retaining wall in Torrance is a poured, steel-reinforced wall that holds back a slope so you get usable, level ground, and it has to carry the steady sideways push of the soil and water behind it every day.
Most calls start with a slope that keeps washing dirt onto the walkway, a yard you'd like flat enough for a new patio, or an old wall that's started to lean. The price moves with the height and length of the wall, how easily we can get concrete and equipment to it, how much drainage it needs and what will sit above it. The schedule turns on the paperwork and engineering a taller wall needs, and on the days the concrete has to cure before we backfill. Your estimate is where all of that turns into a figure for your own wall.
I come out to look at your slope and write the estimate myself, and I work alongside our crew on the wall. The person who asked about your drainage and your fence plans is the same one standing there when the forms go up and the concrete goes in.
I spent years running another contractor's crew and sorting out the jobs that didn't go by the book, then started our company in Torrance in 2023. Tight access, cuts through old slabs and walls right on a property line are the jobs we've become known for.
We're licensed and fully insured. Before you hire anyone for a wall, ask which license classification they hold for the job and check it with the state contractors license board, which describes a concrete contractor as one who forms, pours, places and finishes concrete.
Call (424) 318-3115 or use the form below, and tell us how tall the wall needs to be, how close it sits to your neighbor's line and what you plan to put above it. Photos of any wall that's there now help us see the job before we arrive.
We reply within one business day, and the estimate is free, on site and obligation-free. Once you send the form, I'll set a time to come out, look at the slope and where the water goes, and write up an estimate that shows exactly what you're paying for before we start.
The City of Torrance caps a single retaining wall at 5 feet, so if you need to hold back more ground than that, the answer is stepped walls, each no taller than 5 feet with 2 feet between them. A wall between 4 and 5 feet needs zoning clearance, engineered plans and structural calculations for its permit, plus a soils report in some zoning areas, so that design work comes before any digging. Before we schedule anything, we check with the city on what your wall needs, and if a permit is called for, we handle the paperwork with you, and you can check its status online from your phone.
We're based in Torrance and work across the cities around it, including Lomita and Redondo Beach. Most of the walls we're called about hold up a back yard that drops away from the house, a driveway cut into a slope, or an old block or timber wall that's started to lean, and we check the rules with each city's office the same way before we plan the work.
Yes, if the wall is over 4 feet measured from the top of the wall to the bottom of its footing, or if it holds a surcharge, extra weight above it from a driveway, patio, fill, equipment or a fence. Those walls need a building permit, with inspections from the city's grading inspectors. A shorter wall still has to be shown on a grading or building permit, so tell us everything you plan near the wall before design starts.
Concrete retaining walls in Los Angeles usually cost about $20 to $45 per square foot of wall, and that's the going range in the area, not our price. Where yours lands depends on the height, access, drainage and engineering we covered above. Your estimate gives you a figure for your own Torrance wall.
Most often it's water trapped behind it, because even a moderate rise in groundwater can double or triple the sideways push on a wall and sharply raise the chance it tips or slides. Weep holes, the small openings low in the wall, let some water out, but they're only backup and can clog, so the main drain behind the wall has to do the work. On a wall you already have, clogged weeps, staining, seepage, soggy soil behind it, or leaning, bulging, cracking or shifting over time are worth a closer look.
A poured concrete wall is worth asking about, because on some lots the reinforcement a stacked block wall needs would have to reach into the neighbor's property. A poured wall can be built as a cantilever wall, one that stands on its own footing, or held with tiebacks, anchors that tie the wall back into the ground. Tell us how close the line is when you call so we can look at it on site.
Longer than a stacked block or stone wall, because a poured wall needs forms built and time to cure, while dry-stack and precast walls go up fast. A wall that needs a permit also needs its plans and approvals in hand before we dig, so that time comes first. We'll lay out the order of the work for your wall when we come out.
