We build boulder and rock retaining walls up to 4 feet tall across Spokane County and North Idaho. No middleman, no subcontracted crew, and the price is on this site before you ever call.
Most companies that build retaining walls in Spokane are landscapers or excavators who do a wall when it comes up. That is fine for a planting bed. It is not fine for a wall that has to hold back a wet hillside through forty-some inches of snow and a spring melt every year.
Spokane Retaining Wall Co. builds one thing: retaining walls, with boulders, stacked rock or block, up to 4 feet tall. When a slope needs more height than that, we step it back into two or three shorter walls instead of building one tall one. That keeps your project out of engineering and permit territory in most of our service area, and it is the more forgiving way to hold a slope here anyway.
Large natural stone set with an excavator, two or three courses high. The look most people picture when they say "rock wall."
Boulder walls →Smaller stacked stone for tighter curves, garden edges and walls along a patio or path.
Rock walls →Segmental concrete block for crisp straight lines and steps, common in newer subdivisions.
Block walls →We price by the square foot of wall face, which is simply height times length. A wall 3 feet tall and 40 feet long is 120 square feet of face. Here is what we charge:
| Wall type | Price per square foot of wall face | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Boulder retaining wall | $50 to $65 | Natural look, slopes, driveway cuts, lake and hillside lots |
| Rock (stacked stone) wall | $45 to $60 | Smaller stone, tighter curves, garden and patio edges |
| Block retaining wall | $40 to $55 | Clean straight lines, newer subdivisions, HOA look |
| Removing an old wall | $10 to $20 extra | Rotting railroad ties, leaning block, failed rockery |
Every project has a $4,500 minimum. That covers getting the excavator, stone and crew to your site. Drainage rock, filter fabric, perforated pipe and cleanup are included in the per-foot price, not added on later.
So that 3 by 40 foot boulder wall runs about $6,000 to $7,800. A 4 by 60 foot wall along a driveway runs about $12,000 to $15,600. The full breakdown, with more examples and what moves the number up or down, is on our retaining wall cost page.
Under the building codes that Spokane County and the Idaho cities we serve work from, a retaining wall 4 feet or shorter, measured from the bottom of the footing to the top of the wall, does not need a building permit, as long as it is not holding up a driveway, a structure or a steep slope above it. Over 4 feet, the wall needs an engineered design and a permit.
That rule shapes how we build. A slope that needs 7 feet of change does not get one 7-foot wall. It gets two terraces, each under 4 feet, with a planting shelf between them. You end up with more usable flat ground, a wall that is easier on the eye, and no engineering bill. If a project truly needs a tall engineered wall, we will tell you so and point you to someone who builds them.
Read more in do I need a permit for a retaining wall in Spokane.
Very few retaining walls fail because the stone was too small. They fail because water builds up behind them. Wet soil pushes far harder than dry soil, and in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene the ground behind a wall gets soaked twice a year: in the spring melt and again in the fall rains, with freeze and thaw in between.
Every wall we build gets the same backbone:
More on this on the retaining wall drainage page.
We build April through October. The calendar fills from the front, so winter and early spring is the time to get on it.
Spokane County and Kootenai County, from Cheney to Hayden. A few of the areas we work in most:
We charge $50 to $65 per square foot of wall face for boulder walls, $45 to $60 for stacked rock and $40 to $55 for block, with a $4,500 project minimum. A typical 3 foot by 40 foot boulder wall runs about $6,000 to $7,800.
In Spokane County and the Idaho cities we serve, a wall 4 feet or shorter, measured from the bottom of the footing, generally does not need a building permit unless it supports a driveway, a structure or a slope above it. We only build walls in that range, and we check the rules for your address before we quote.
No. We terrace instead: two or three shorter walls stepped back into the slope. If your project needs one tall engineered wall, we will say so and refer you.
No. The people who measure and price your wall are the people who build it.
April through October. We take estimates and book the schedule through the winter.
Yes. Coeur d'Alene, Post Falls, Hayden, Rathdrum, Hayden Lake and Dalton Gardens are a big part of our work. See our Coeur d'Alene page.
Send a few photos and rough measurements. We reply with a price range, usually within one business day.