Retaining Walls
Retaining Wall Installation in Commack, NY
Segmental block and natural stone retaining walls across Commack: built with the drainage behind them, not just the blocks in front of them.
The ground under Commack
Commack sits north-central, on moraine rather than outwash: glacial till, with sand, gravel, silt and clay deposited together and left unsorted. Denser and much slower to drain than the clean sand south of the ridge.
For a retaining wall, this is the demanding ground, and it is where walls fail. Till doesn’t let water drain away, so it accumulates in the soil behind the wall over a wet winter and stays there. Every leaning wall we’re called out to look at on the north shore is a drainage failure rather than a strength failure. The blocks were fine, the water had nowhere to go. Which is why the specification below is not padding on a north-shore job.
How we do the work
A retaining wall holds back water, not just soil. Dry soil is heavy; saturated soil is much heavier and pushes sideways far harder. That sideways push is what knocks walls over, and a wall perfectly capable of retaining the soil behind it will still fail if the water in that soil has nowhere to go.
So the parts that matter are the ones you can’t see once it’s finished:
- Free-draining backfill immediately behind the blocks, rather than the excavated soil shovelled straight back in
- A drain at the base of that zone with somewhere real to daylight
- Geotextile separating the drainage stone from the soil, so the soil doesn’t migrate in and clog it
- A buried base course, so the bottom of the wall can’t kick out
- A compacted levelling pad underneath
A wall built without those stands beautifully for two or three years and then leans. By the time it leans there is no fixing it. It comes down and goes back up.
Terracing is often the better answer on a slope. Two shorter walls with a planted bench between them can do the same job as one tall wall, look considerably better, and stay under the height that triggers engineered design.
What moves the price in Commack
Lot size is the Commack variable. Larger properties and long driveways mean cost scales with area rather than frontage, and the price gap between materials widens sharply at that scale: a difference of a dollar or two per square foot is trivial on a short drive and substantial on a long one. On larger jobs phasing is realistic, and we’ll price it both ways if that helps.
Local rules
Commack is split between two municipalities: part in the Town of Huntington, part in the Town of Smithtown. The boundary runs through the hamlet, and which town you’re in decides which office and which rules apply. We establish it from your address before quoting.
What we’ll do regardless: tell you what applies before you sign, not after we’ve started.
Why this crew
The person who quotes the job is on the crew that runs it, and the quote states the base depth, which is the line worth comparing across any estimates you’re holding.
ICPI certified, Techo-Bloc Pro, A+ with the BBB, trading since 2017, working out of a yard on Horseblock Road in Medford.
Frequently asked questions
Why is my existing wall leaning?
Almost always drainage. Water building up behind the wall with nowhere to escape pushes it forward. Once it’s leaning it can’t be pushed back. It has to come down and be rebuilt with the drainage it should have had.
Can you build over an existing wall?
No. Facing over a failing wall hides the problem and adds load to a structure that’s already losing. If the existing wall is sound it can stay; if it’s moved, it comes out.
Is my property in Huntington or Smithtown?
Commack straddles both. We’ll confirm from your address at the estimate: it decides which permit office applies.