There are several uses for retaining walls on a residential property. Many homeowners use them for decorative reasons, gardening, and as an extra barrier for foundations. There are other ways the retaining option can be used. Here are a few of the residential uses for retaining walls and how they can benefit your property. 

Retain Soil

Retaining the soil of your property is one of the leading ways you can use retaining walls. There are slopes along your property. Most may be slight slopes while others could cause major property damage if they begin to slide. Heavy rains and flooding are the primary causes of land following the slope and causing a landslide. This can weaken your home foundation if the slide happens too close to the home. It can also weaken the integrity of the property causing dangerous areas and future washing out or erosion. 

Prevent Flooding 

If you live in an area that easily floods, then you need to consider retaining walls. The walls can be placed in areas that are prone to flooding to help keep the water back. For example, you may have lower-lying areas around the home near guest rooms, bathrooms, or patios. You can have a retaining wall placed around the areas to protect the lower areas from flooding and those flood waters from entering your home. The retaining walls will only hold up to a certain amount of flood waters. You will need to discuss with your contractor to determine the height and length that your retaining walls should be. 

Deck Barrier

You may have a deck on the back of your home. This deck is likely already raised a certain number of feet above the ground. The problem comes in with flooding and erosion under the deck. Flooding can lead to erosion which can lead to damage to your deck posts. This makes the deck unstable and causes possible collapse of the deck. Instead of going through that, you can choose to have retaining walls placed around the base of the deck to stop the flood waters and prevent the previously mentioned issues from happening. 

These are just a few of the ways you can use retaining walls on your residential property. When you are ready to have retaining walls installed, contact your concrete contractor. They can help you with designs that may work well with your property lines and slopes. They can also discuss other areas of your property that may benefit from the use of the walls.