Completed project · Flower Mound, TX
Building a Milsap Stone Wall to Hold New Grade After a Pool Removal in Flower Mound, TX
With the pool gone, the yard needed something to hold the restored grade against the existing patio. We built a curved Milsap stone wall to do it.
Project at a glance
- Location
- Flower Mound, TX
- Service
- Retaining wall installation
- Context
- Following a residential pool removal
- Built
- Curved Milsap stone wall
- Finish
- Backfilled, compacted and graded to the existing patio
- 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: pool out, grade held
The same corner of the yard, before and after. The aggregate patio in the foreground never moved — the wall was built to meet it.
Why a pool removal so often needs a wall
A swimming pool is a large hole with vertical sides. When it comes out, that volume has to be replaced with fill, and fill does not have vertical sides. It wants to find its own angle of repose, which is a good deal flatter than the pool wall it replaced.
On a flat lot that is not a problem — the fill simply spreads and is graded out. On a lot with any fall across it, and most of Flower Mound has some, the new ground has to be held at the low side or it will migrate there over the following seasons.
This yard had a second constraint: an existing aggregate patio that the owner wanted to keep. A patio is a fixed level. The restored ground either meets it cleanly or it does not, and ‘does not’ means either a trip hazard or a strip of ground that never drains.
So the wall here is not decorative. It is what makes the restored yard hold its shape, meet the patio at the right height, and shed water away from the house rather than toward it.
How the wall went in
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Free on-site estimate
Robert set the finished levels on site — where the new ground had to meet the patio, and how high the wall needed to be to hold it — then quoted a firm price.
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Permits and locates
Permits pulled by JCL, utilities located before any excavation. Pool equipment runs are the services most often forgotten on a job like this.
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Setting the line
The wall was set out as a curve rather than a straight run, following the shape of the old pool surround so the finished yard reads as one deliberate shape instead of a patch.
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Base preparation
A compacted base under the whole wall line. This is doubly important here — a wall founded on fresh backfill rather than on undisturbed ground is a wall that will settle.
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Milsap stone laid to a batter
Each course set slightly back into the slope, so the wall’s mass works against the load rather than standing square to it.
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Drainage and compacted backfill
Aggregate behind the stone and fill placed in compacted lifts. Loose fill behind a new wall is the most common reason a good wall still ends up with a dished lawn behind it.
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Grading to the patio
The finished ground was brought to meet the existing aggregate patio with a clean junction and a fall away from the house.
Why it lasts
Founding a wall where a pool used to be
Building on ground that was a hole a fortnight ago is the specific challenge here, and it is where this kind of job is most often got wrong.
Found on undisturbed ground
Wherever the wall line allows it, the base sits on ground that was never excavated. A wall founded on fresh fill inherits every bit of settlement that fill has left to do.
Compaction in lifts, not in one go
Fill goes in in layers, each compacted before the next. Tipped in loose and levelled off, it looks identical on the day and is a dish by the second summer.
Drainage before backfill
Aggregate and the drainage path go in as the wall rises, not afterwards. Retrofitting drainage behind a finished wall means taking the backfill out again.
Levels set against what stays
The patio, the house slab and the fence line are all fixed. The new grade is set to them from the start rather than being discovered at the end.
★★★★★
“Extremely strong recommendation. We had a very large pool removed with a 2 foot retaining wall put…”
Ben Stiers5-star Google review for JCL Landscape Services
Get a free estimate on your Flower Mound retaining wall
Tell us what the wall needs to hold and what it has to meet — a patio, a fence, a driveway. Robert will come out, usually same day or next, with a firm price.
Flower Mound retaining wall questions
Do I always need a retaining wall after a pool is removed?
No. On a genuinely flat lot the fill can usually be graded out and seeded. A wall becomes necessary when the yard falls across its width, or when the restored ground has to meet a fixed level like a patio or a slab.
Can the wall be built at the same time as the pool removal?
Yes, and it is normally better done that way — the equipment is already on site and the levels are being set once rather than twice. It also avoids compacting fill, then digging part of it back out for a wall footing.
What is Milsap stone?
A North Texas sandstone, quarried locally, with a warm buff-to-gold colour range. It is a common choice for DFW retaining walls because it weathers well here and matches the stone on a lot of local houses.
Will the ground behind the new wall settle?
Not appreciably, if the fill is compacted in lifts as it goes in and the wall has drainage behind it. Settlement behind a new wall is nearly always a compaction shortcut rather than a fault in the wall.
How much does a retaining wall cost in Flower Mound?
It depends on length, height, material and how easily equipment reaches the back yard. JCL quotes a firm price at the free on-site estimate, and that quoted price is what you pay.
Do you build curved walls?
Yes. A curve often suits a yard better than a straight run, particularly where it is following the shape of something that used to be there, as here.
Flower Mound retaining walls & pool removal
JCL has been removing pools and building retaining walls across DFW since 2006. If you are weighing up either, start here:
More recent DFW projects:
Thinking about taking the pool out?
It is worth pricing the wall and the removal together — one visit, one set of levels, and the yard finished in one go rather than opened up twice.