Retaining Walls in Pasadena

Expert Retaining Wall Construction & Repair

A retaining wall in Pasadena is rarely just decorative. Whether it is holding back a slope in the San Rafael Hills or supporting a driveway in the Arroyo, these structures are doing heavy lifting. When they fail, they don't just crack—they put the property, and everything above it, at risk.

In Pasadena, we see a legacy of failing walls: unreinforced river rock from the 1920s, leaning concrete block walls (CMU) from the 60s, and rotting railroad ties that have long since lost their battle with gravity. Replacing them isn't a gardening project; it is a structural engineering project. The City of Pasadena has some of the strictest hillside ordinances in Los Angeles County. You cannot simply stack blocks and hope for the best. You need a design that calculates soil pressure, surcharge loads, and drainage.

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Retaining Wall Contractors Pasadena

Most contractors in Pasadena can build a wall. Very few can engineer one. If you hire a general contractor, they have to hire an outside engineer, who hires a soil engineer, and then you are left managing three different parties who all blame each other when the permit gets stuck in plan check.

Alpha Structural is different. We are the only contractor in the region licensed to engineer and build in-house. We don't farm out the math. We analyze the slope, design the wall, pull the Pasadena permits, and build it with our own crews.

The Alpha Approach to Hillside Walls

Pasadena’s topography requires more than a standard solution. We specialize in:

• Concrete & Shotcrete Walls: High-strength structural walls designed for steep grades.
• Pile-Supported Walls: For slopes where the surface soil is sliding, we drill caissons deep into the bedrock to anchor the wall permanently.
• Replacing Failed Retaining Walls: We carefully demo the old, failing structure (often while shoring up the earth behind it) and install a modern, code-compliant replacement.
• Permit Management: We know the Pasadena building department. We handle the engineering calculations and inspections so you don't have to.

If your retaining wall is leaning, cracking, or bulging, it is failing. Do not wait for the next heavy rain to test its limits.

Call us today to schedule an inspection or request an estimate: (323) 258-5482 [Request an Assessment or Estimate »]

Related Structural Services for Pasadena:

• Hillside Repair: Stabilization for homes in Linda Vista and Annandale.
• Foundation Underpinning: Strengthening settling foundations in historic homes.
• Drainage Systems: Managing runoff to prevent hydrostatic pressure behind walls.
• Slope Stabilization: Erosion control and structural shoring.