Concrete Retaining Wall Contractors in Raeford, NC

Faceville, Wagram and the Blaney slopes

Soil survey points read at 60 places inside the city came back Faceville loamy sand at 18 (two slope classes), Faceville-Urban land at 10, and Blaney loamy sand 8 to 15 percent slopes, Wagram loamy sand, Duplin sandy loam, Wagram-Urban land and Lakeland-Urban land at 4 each. NRCS rates Faceville and Wagram as well drained, and neither is limited for a house without a basement.

The ground drains, so concrete retaining walls in Raeford are about the footing and the cut, not about wet soil. The Blaney 8 to 15 percent slope spots are the ones to watch. Slope is where a retaining structure earns its keep. A yard with that much fall needs a bank held, a terrace made or a driveway cut into the hill. The NRCS ratings for the main soils in the city are good news for a footing, but a rating is an average. Your bank is one yard, and we confirm it with a probe.

Concrete retaining walls in Raeford: city lot or county lot? Start there

The City of Raeford lists a Code Administration department that covers code enforcement, planning, zoning and building inspections. Start at City Hall if your lot is inside city limits. Hoke County's courthouse and permit offices are in town too, so if your lot is out in rural Hoke or Rockfish under county jurisdiction, that's where you go for permits.

The county zoning ordinance applies to unincorporated land only, and it excludes land inside any municipality's extraterritorial area. If your lot is in the city, the county's setbacks are not your rules. Ask City Hall who issues the zoning permit and who inspects. If your lot is outside the city, the county's Zoning Permit page applies, and the county's Planning counter is the place to start. Either way, get the answer before you commit to a height, because the height sets the engineering and the price.

Not sure? Call City Hall with the address. They can tell you in a minute, and it saves a trip to the wrong counter. Ask who inspects the footing and the drain, too, since that decides when we schedule the pour. Our permit guide compares the offices around Fayetteville, including the City of Fayetteville, Cumberland County, the Town of Hope Mills and the Town of Spring Lake. Those towns run their own counters. Raeford's City Hall lists its own Code Administration, and Hoke County has its own desks, so a neighbor's permit story from another town won't match yours.

Out in Hoke County: the zoning permit, setbacks and the watershed cap

On county land, a residential project runs three steps. Environmental Health covers septic and is skipped on public sewer. Then Planning issues a zoning permit, and the county's residential page says the project must meet setbacks and not sit in a flood zone, wetland or easement. Last, Building Inspections issues the building permit. A plot plan shows the lot, the buildings, and the location and dimensions of parking and driveways.

The ordinance bars using land or erecting, moving or structurally altering a building until the zoning permit exists, and the permit is void if work doesn't start within 180 days. In the R-20 and RA-20 districts the table lists setbacks of 30 feet front, 10 feet side and 25 feet rear. On county land, a house driveway follows Sec. 9.2: two off-street spaces of 9 by 18 feet, and no driveway within 20 feet of an intersection. On a corner lot, plan the bank around where that driveway is allowed to go.

In the WS-IV-PA water-supply watershed, a single-family lot needs 20,000 square feet or a built-upon area of 24 percent, and pavement counts toward the built-upon area. Ask Planning how a paved terrace above the face counts.

Fill and Urban land: the lots with disturbed ground

Eighteen of the 60 survey points inside the city, 10 Faceville-Urban land, 4 Wagram-Urban land and 4 Lakeland-Urban land, sit on Urban land complexes. Those units mean fill and past disturbance. A bank on disturbed ground can be loose, and a footing set in loose fill moves. We probe before we pour and we compact the bed, and if the probe finds soft fill we tell you what comes out and what goes in before the price is final.

The same goes for a bank at the back of an older lot where the grade was cut or built up years ago. The city has a courthouse and a historic district on the National Register, so some blocks have been built on for a long time. You can't read what's under a lawn from the street, so we dig a test spot at the walk-through. It's how concrete retaining walls in Raeford get a footing price you can trust.

Once the bed is firm, steel ties the footing to the stem, stone and perforated pipe go behind the face, and the pipe runs to a safe outlet. Our service page walks through each part in full. On a lot along US 401, an NCDOT driveway permit may also come into it, so find out who maintains your street.

Flood height and the one AE point in 50

Flood-map points read at 50 spots inside the city came back 49 minimal-hazard Zone X and 1 Zone AE. In that sample, flooding barely shows up inside city limits. Out on county land the rule has a number: the county's Regulatory Flood Protection Elevation is the base flood elevation plus 3 feet of freeboard, or at least 3 feet above the highest adjacent grade where no base elevation exists. A structure that holds fill inside a floodplain gets a different review from one on a dry ridge.

Check your address in the NC flood risk lookup before you plan to raise a yard. If the lot is mapped, ask the permit office for the floodplain steps before the first stake goes in. On county land, starting work without a permit doubles the permit cost, so it pays to have paper in hand.

On a dry lot, none of that applies, and the job is mostly footing, cut and drain. Even then we plan where the water leaves. A drain pipe that ends in a neighbor's yard becomes a neighbor problem, and roof water sent down a bank washes it out. The outlet goes on the plan before the first shovel goes in the ground.

Pricing and scheduling a job here

We price walls here by the square foot of face, poured or block, up to about 4 feet. Taller walls get an engineer's design and a per-design price. Footing depth, drain stone, steps and truck access all move the number. We give a free written estimate after the walk-through, and the table below shows how the range plays out at real sizes.

Before any digging, the contractor calls NC 811 three full working days ahead. We handle that and tell you the date. If a locate flags a line close to the work, we move our run, not the line.

Bring the address, the length and the height, and tell us whether the lot is city or county. That's all we need to get concrete retaining walls in Raeford moving. Then we book the walk-through and tell you what we'll measure, probe and photograph, so you know what to expect when the truck pulls up. Our town page lists the rest of what we pour here. If the work is going in next to a driveway, look at the driveway page too, or reach us through the contact page.