Drainage Issues: How Retaining Walls Can Help
Retaining walls provide property owners with a variety of benefits from increasing drainage and preventing erosion to adding to a home’s curb appeal and improving the landscaping. If retaining walls aren’t designed properly to account for proper drainage, it is likely that they will fail, resulting in extensive damage to your property. Whether you’re planning on installing a retaining wall on your own or hiring a professional
, it’s essential to understand the purpose, types, and crucial features of retaining walls.
What is a Retaining Wall?
A retaining wall is a structure that can be created by many different types of material to retain soil and water behind it. While retaining walls were initially designed to keep a property’s landscape soil from eroding, homeowners are commonly choosing to incorporate these structures to increase their property’s aesthetic value and create more usable space. Retaining walls can be built from a variety of materials; some are easy to use while others have a shorter life span.
Types of Retaining Walls
The properties of homeowners vary, meaning the reasoning or purpose for a retaining wall can differ from location to location. From drainage and erosion to needing more usable space, there are four common types of retaining walls, each designed with different purposes.
Why Proper Drainage is Important
Allowing for proper drainage in your retaining wall is extremely important as any built-up water puts additional pressure on the structure and can weaken the retaining wall’s ability to resist. If built-up water isn’t allowed to release, the weakest part of the retaining wall will give. This can be identified from a bulge, leaning outward, or buckling. Several methods can be incorporated when designing your retaining wall to prevent water from building up:
Each of these methods will help reduce the amount of water building up behind your retaining wall, thus lessening the chances of bulging, outward leaning, and buckling. In many cases, homeowners are most successful when combining more than one of these methods, and, as a result, water pressure on your retaining wall will be drastically reduced.
How to Set Up Your Retaining Wall
Whether you’re choosing to hire a professional to build a retaining wall or choosing to do it yourself, it’s encouraged to have a basic understanding of the proper structure. If a retaining wall is built incorrectly, it could lead to significant issues for your property and landscaping.
Improve the Health of Your Property
Whether you’re having difficulties with proper drainage in your landscaping or looking to add to the aesthetic of your property, a retaining wall is an excellent addition. There are many different designs of retaining walls created with various materials, so learning what’s best for your property is essential. It’s vital to be sure that your retaining wall is designed and constructed correctly to alleviate any future issues. Contact a professional or begin building a retaining wall on your own to start improving the overall health of your property.
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When Pergolas Don’t Last, There’s Always a Reason After nearly two decades of building outdoor spaces across Medina, I’ve seen what happens when pergolas aren’t designed for Minnesota’s conditions. You can spot them a mile away—posts that lean, beams that twist, and concrete pads that have heaved out of level after just a couple of winters. It’s not because homeowners cut corners intentionally. It’s usually because whoever built it didn’t account for what our climate really does to structures that aren’t anchored right. Medina’s heavy clay soil doesn’t drain well. It holds moisture, freezes solid, and then expands like a hydraulic press pushing on everything above it. When pergolas are set on surface-level post bases, that pressure has nowhere to go but up—and the whole thing moves. Even small shifts can cause joints to separate, wood to crack, and hardware to loosen. That’s how a $15,000 structure starts looking tired after a few years instead of standing straight for decades. The truth is, pergolas here aren’t just about shade or looks. They’re about structure, drainage, and how every piece ties into the patio beneath it. A pergola that stands tall through Minnesota winters is built on the same principles as a good foundation—it’s only as strong as what’s underneath it. If you live in Medina and want to enjoy your backyard without worrying about your investment warping or sagging, start with design that respects the environment it’s built in. That means thinking beyond lumber and stain colors. It means understanding soil movement, water management, and the importance of integrating your pergola with the patio below it.
Solutions for Properties in Minnetonka You can always tell a Minnetonka yard that’s fighting its slope. Water doesn’t lie, it finds the weak spots every time. I’ve walked plenty of properties where a backyard starts beautiful in June, but by September, the patio is heaving, the grass near the pool looks like a marsh, and the homeowner is wondering how it got so bad so fast. The truth is, when you’re dealing with rolling terrain and heavy clay soils like we have around Minnetonka, you can’t just move dirt and hope gravity behaves. You need a plan that manages water from the surface all the way down through the subsoil. This is what I’ll walk you through here. You’ll see what actually causes drainage issues on sloped properties, how poor planning leads to cracked patios and shifting pool decks, and the smart drainage systems that can stop those problems for good. Whether you live near Lake Minnetonka or up in the higher ridges closer to Deephaven or Woodland, understanding how your yard sheds water is the difference between a property that lasts and one that’s constantly under repair. The Real Challenge of Sloped Minnetonka Yards Minnetonka is known for its hills, lakefront properties, and mature trees, but all that beauty comes with a set of challenges below the surface. Most of the soil here is dense clay. It holds water like a sponge and drains slowly, which means after every heavy rain, that water looks for a way downhill. If it doesn’t have a proper outlet, it ends up collecting right where you don’t want it, like along your patio, at the base of a retaining wall, or near your pool deck. I see this every season: homeowners trying to solve slope problems with a quick regrade, a layer of rock, or a simple surface drain. Those things might help for a while, but they don’t address what’s really happening underground. Clay soil doesn’t just get wet—it becomes saturated, expanding and contracting with every freeze-thaw cycle. When that happens under a patio or wall, it doesn’t matter how well-built the surface looks. The ground will move, and that movement cracks stone, shifts pavers, and slowly tears apart everything on top. The other challenge with sloped lots is how water interacts with gravity. It accelerates downhill, gaining momentum as it goes. When it hits a flat area like a patio, the water loses speed but not volume, pooling instead of flowing. That’s why I tell clients that “flat spots” on a sloped property are both an opportunity and a responsibility. They’re the best spaces to create usable outdoor areas, but they have to be engineered to handle water movement. I’ve worked on plenty of Minnetonka yards where the backyard has a beautiful view but terrible grading. You can have a perfect slope on paper, but if it directs water toward your house or creates a bowl effect between structures, you’ll end up with soggy soil and standing puddles that never dry. The goal is to move water off and away while keeping the surface level enough for comfort and usability. It’s a fine balance, but when it’s done right, it completely transforms how a property functions.