Completed project · Colleyville, TX
Replacing a Mixed Cinder Block and Cross Tie Wall With Milsap Stone in Colleyville, TX
A wall that had been part cinder block and part cross tie, patched over the years. We took the whole run out and rebuilt it in Milsap stone.
Project at a glance
- Location
- Colleyville, TX
- Service
- Retaining wall replacement
- Removed
- Mixed cinder block and cross tie wall
- Built
- Milsap stone retaining wall
- Setting
- Alongside a sloping driveway
- Warranty
- 5-year JCL workmanship warranty
- 4.8across 106 Google reviews
- BBB A+accredited business
- 5-yearwarranty on every wall
- Since 2006same DFW ownership
- Freesame- or next-day estimates
Before & after
Before and after: one wall, one material
The same driveway, before and after. What had been a patchwork of block and timber is now a single stone wall running the whole length.
Why mixed-material walls fail at the join
Almost no retaining wall starts out as two materials. It starts as one, a section of it fails, and that section gets replaced with whatever was to hand at the time. Do that twice over twenty years and you end up with the wall in the first photo: part cinder block, part cross tie, and a seam where they meet.
The problem is that the two materials do not behave the same way. Timber decays and compresses. Block does not, but it is rigid and cracks rather than flexing. Put them in the same run and every bit of seasonal ground movement gets concentrated at the joint between them.
Colleyville sits on the same expansive clay as the rest of the metroplex, so that movement arrives twice a year without fail. The join opens, water finds it, and the failure spreads outward from the seam in both directions.
There is a second issue visible here. The wall runs alongside a driveway, which means it is retaining ground that a vehicle drives over. That is a surcharge load — a wall holding back soil with a car sitting on top of it is doing considerably more work than the same wall holding a lawn.
How the wall was replaced
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Free on-site estimate
Robert assessed how much of the run was still sound and confirmed that patching it again would only move the failure along. Firm price, quoted on site.
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Permits and locates
JCL pulled the permit and had utilities located. A driveway wall commonly has services running parallel to it, at unhelpful depths.
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Full removal
Block, cross ties, old footings and the failed backfill all came out. Retaining any of the old wall would have rebuilt the same joint problem in a new form.
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Base sized for the load
A compacted base along the whole run, sized for a wall that is retaining a trafficked driveway rather than a garden bed.
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Milsap stone laid to a batter
One material, one run, each course stepped back into the slope so the wall leans into the load.
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Drainage and backfill
Aggregate behind the stone with somewhere for the water to go, then fill compacted in lifts.
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Clean-up
The driveway was swept and washed and the grade tied back in either end. Cleanup is the thing customers mention most in JCL’s reviews.
Why it lasts
What a driveway wall has to carry
A wall beside a driveway is engineered differently from a wall beside a lawn, even when the two look identical from the front.
Surcharge from vehicles
A car parked or turning above a wall adds load the soil alone would not. The base and the wall section are sized for that, not for the height of the wall on its own.
One material, one behaviour
A single material through the whole run means the wall moves as one thing. Every mixed-material wall has a seam, and the seam is where it opens.
Drainage away from the slab
Water held behind a driveway wall does not just push the wall — it undermines the driveway above it. The drainage path is planned to take it away from both.
Batter into the slope
Courses stepped back so the wall’s mass resists the load, instead of standing perpendicular to it and relying on sheer bulk.
★★★★★
“I hired JCL Landscape Services to build a retaining wall in my alley, and I couldn't be more pleased…”
Elizabeth De Leon5-star Google review for JCL Landscape Services
Get a free estimate on your Colleyville retaining wall
Tell us what the wall runs alongside — a driveway, a lawn, a property line — and Robert will come out, usually same day or next, with a firm price.
Colleyville retaining wall questions
Can I just replace the failed section of my wall?
Sometimes, if the rest is genuinely sound and the same material. Where a wall is already a mix of materials, patching adds another seam and the next failure simply appears beside the repair. Robert will tell you honestly which situation you are in.
Are cinder block retaining walls any good?
Plain cinder block laid without reinforcement, drainage or a proper base is not a retaining wall, it is a stack of blocks. Engineered segmental block systems are a different thing entirely and perform well.
Does a wall next to a driveway need to be built differently?
Yes. Vehicle load above a wall is a surcharge, and the base and wall section have to account for it. A wall built for a garden bed and then asked to hold up a driveway is a common cause of failure.
How much does a retaining wall cost in Colleyville?
It depends on length, height, material, access, and whether it is retaining a trafficked surface. JCL quotes a firm price at the free on-site estimate — that quoted price is what you pay, with no change orders.
Do I need a permit for a retaining wall in Colleyville?
It depends on the height and where it sits on the property. JCL obtains and manages every permit required as part of the work.
Is JCL local to Colleyville?
Yes — JCL Landscape Services is based in Colleyville and has operated under the same ownership since 2006, serving 42 communities across the DFW metroplex.
Colleyville retaining walls & pool removal
JCL is based in Colleyville and has been building walls and removing pools across DFW since 2006. Start here:
More recent DFW projects:
Patched your wall more than once?
If a wall has already been repaired in a different material, the next failure is usually beside the last repair. Worth pricing the whole run before you patch again.