Retaining Walls and Bank Repair in Hendersonville, NC
Old walls rebuilt to last.
Hendersonville's older lots were terraced into the hills around downtown a century ago, and the newer ones climb toward Laurel Park and Flat Rock. Both leave banks: stone walls from the 1920s giving way, builder block walls leaning after a wet year. McKinley rebuilds them and builds new ones, with the drainage behind that keeps them up.
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Retaining Walls in Hendersonville
Old walls in an old town
Hendersonville is the Henderson County seat, about 2,100 feet up and 22 miles south of Asheville, and it was laid out early. Druid Hills, Hyman Heights, Lenox Park and the Fifth Avenue streets sit on terraced lots with walls as old as the houses. Many are dry-stacked stone with nothing behind them but clay.
Nearly a third of the people in town are over 65, and many bought a house with a wall already failing. Those are the calls. A stone wall bellying out over the sidewalk. A terrace slumping. A drive cut that a tree root has finally pushed over.
Slopes toward Laurel Park
West of downtown the ground climbs steeply toward Laurel Park and Jump Off Rock, and the newer houses there sit on cut pads with long drives. South toward Flat Rock it is rolling and wooded. The walls on those lots are younger and often worse: segmental block stacked on dirt by whoever built the house, with no base and no drain.
After a wet winter they lean, and once a block wall leans it does not stop. McKinley takes it down, puts in the base and the drainage it never had, and rebuilds it. Where one tall wall was the problem, he steps it into two lower ones.
Apple ground and red clay
Henderson County is apple country, the southern limit of commercial apple growing in the East. The same well-drained red clay that suits an orchard holds water hard once it is cut and compacted. Behind a wall, that clay gets heavy and pushes.
So the wall he builds is a drain with stone in front of it. A compacted base below grade, drainage stone and fabric behind every course, and perforated pipe at the bottom running out to daylight. On lots where the yard is wet as well, the wall drain ties into a French drain so the hillside water goes around the house instead of into it.
Mud Creek and the bottom of town
Mud Creek runs north through the east side of the city toward the French Broad. It floods often enough that the city has a flood reduction project on its lower reach. Lots near the creek are not wall jobs in the usual sense. They are bank jobs.
A creek bank or a ditch line that is washing needs riprap: large stone set into the slope so the water moves over it instead of through it. Helene in 2024 moved a lot of those banks, and the county saw flooding in places that had never flooded. Work near the creek can need a floodplain permit, so that question gets asked first.
Permits through Henderson County
Building permits and inspections for the City of Hendersonville are handled by Henderson County Permits and Inspections on North King Street, under contract with the city. The same office covers Laurel Park, Flat Rock, Mills River and Fletcher. The city's Community Development Department handles zoning.
The North Carolina Residential Code calls for an engineered design on some retaining walls, by height, by what the wall holds up and when it sits on a property line. McKinley says when a wall is there and builds to the drawings. NC811 locates go in three working days before digging; the old terraced lots have water and gas lines in surprising places.
Getting a number
He walks the wall from both ends and from below, and gives one figure with stone, drainage and the grading above in it. An old stone wall that can be taken down and reset with a drain behind it is a different job from a block wall built from nothing. The price reflects it.
Where a drive runs along the top of the wall, it usually needs regrading or rebuilding at the same time. The main retaining walls page shows how a wall goes up, and the cost guide lays out what moves the number.
Retaining Walls
Block, boulder and riprap walls that hold a cut bank up, with drainage behind them so they stay.
See the serviceTalk to McKinley(828) 540-6856
A photo of the wall from the street and one from above it. McKinley says whether it is a reset, a rebuild or an engineer first.
Call nowWhat that covers
- Old stone walls. Century-old terrace walls taken down, drained and rebuilt.
- Block walls. Segmental block on a compacted base with stone and pipe behind.
- Riprap banks. Creek, ditch and outlet banks armored against washing.
- Drive cuts. The uphill side of a climbing drive held so it stops sloughing.
Hendersonville, NC
The Henderson County seat, 30 minutes south of Asheville, with older in-town lots, apple-country acreage and retirees' houses on sloped lots toward Flat Rock and Laurel Park.
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See the pageThe serviceRetaining Walls
Block, boulder and riprap walls that hold a cut bank up, with drainage behind them so they stay.
Main service pageHendersonville and the towns nearby
Hendersonville is the south end of McKinley's mountain run. He builds the same walls up US-25 in Fletcher and Arden, and in Asheville itself. Laurel Park, Flat Rock, East Flat Rock, Mills River and Etowah are on the same roads, and the sloped lots toward Jump Off Rock are a few minutes from downtown. The Hendersonville page lists the rest of what he does in Henderson County.
You get McKinley. Not a crew he sent.
You call
You call or text. McKinley comes out and looks at the job with you, on the ground, rather than pricing it off a photograph.
A number first
You get one figure before anything starts, with the hauling and the finish grading in it.
He runs the machine
Then he shows up and runs the machine himself.
Ground left usable
Voids get filled, water is given a way out, and the ground is left so you can build, pour or seed.
Photos of his work.
These are photographs from actual jobs. See more recent work. Or read about the full retaining walls service.
Questions people ask
Not seeing yours? Call (828) 540-6856 and ask McKinley, or read the guides.
Do I need a permit for a retaining wall in Hendersonville?
Ask Henderson County Permits and Inspections on North King Street, which handles building permits for the city under contract, and the city's Community Development Department for zoning. Whether a wall needs a permit depends on its height, what it holds up and where the lot is, and the code can call for an engineered design on some walls.
Can an old stone wall be saved?
Sometimes. A dry-stacked wall that has bellied out can be taken down, the stone kept, a compacted base and drainage stone put in, and the wall reset with a pipe behind it. If the stone has split or the wall was never deep enough, it is rebuilt in block or boulder in the same place.
My lot backs onto Mud Creek. Can you armor the bank?
Riprap is the usual answer on a creek bank, with large stone set into the slope so water moves over it instead of cutting it. Work near the creek can need a floodplain permit, so McKinley asks that question before anything is moved. He will say when a bank is beyond what stone alone can hold.
Will a new wall fix the water in my basement?
Not on its own. The wall drain takes the water that is behind the wall and sends it to daylight, which helps. If the basement is wet because hillside water is reaching the house, a French drain around the house, tied into the wall drain, is the fix, and the two are usually built together.
How tall can you build before an engineer gets involved?
The code sets the line by height, load and property line rather than one number, so a wall under a drive can need engineering while a taller garden wall might not. On Hendersonville's terraced lots, two stepped low walls are often the better answer. McKinley tells you where your wall sits on the first visit.
Other work he takes on
Most jobs end up being two or three of these at once, and they get quoted together.
Retaining Walls in other towns
Gravel Driveways
A new drive cut into the hill, based in lifts and crowned to shed water.
Learn moreDriveway Repair & Grading
Washouts, ruts and potholes fixed at the cause, not just regraded.
Learn moreDrainage & Erosion Control
French drains, catch basins, culverts and riprap so the property sheds water.
Learn moreRetaining Walls
Block, boulder and riprap walls that hold a cut bank up.
Learn moreLand Clearing
Lots, building sites and overgrown acreage cleared, stumps and root mat out.
Learn moreHouse Pads & Site Prep
Pads cut, filled and compacted on ground that started at anything but level.
Learn moreFree estimate in Hendersonville.
Where it is, how long the drive is, how steep it gets and what it is doing now. We come out, walk it, and give you a real number.
- Free on-site estimates across WNC and the Upstate
- One crew from clearing through to the last load of stone
- Drainage designed in, not sold to you afterwards
Need retaining wall work in Hendersonville?
Call or text McKinley. He walks the ground before he gives you a price.