Retaining Walls, Rock Walls & Land Clearing

A retaining wall on the Olympic Peninsula has one job: hold back wet glacial till through six months of rain without leaning, cracking or washing out. Eaglemount Excavation, LLC builds walls that do that job, from our home base in Chimacum to sloped lots in Port Townsend, Port Ludlow and the Hood Canal towns of Quilcene and Brinnon. We also do the land clearing that usually comes first, so one contractor handles the brush, the stumps, the cut, the wall and the finish grade.

What we do

Retaining walls for sloped lots

Cut-and-fill walls are the most common wall we build in Jefferson County. You have a slope and you want a flat spot for a driveway, a shop pad, parking or a yard you can use. We cut into the bank, build the wall, backfill with drain rock and bring the pad to grade. We build with segmental concrete block, stacked rock and timber [VERIFY: wall materials offered]. Every wall gets the three things that keep it standing here: a compacted crushed-rock base, free-draining backfill instead of native clay, and a perforated drain pipe at the heel that runs to daylight downhill. Skip one and winter water builds pressure behind the wall until it leans. Walls that make a driveway or building pad often share a cut with our excavation and site preparation work, so we quote both at once.

Rock walls & rockeries

A rockery is a wall of large, individually placed rock, battered back into the slope so each course rests on the one below it. It suits Peninsula lots because it drains through its own face and moves a little with the ground instead of cracking. We set the rock with the excavator and fit each stone by hand [VERIFY: rock sizes, source and placement method]. Rockeries also work as landscape walls along a driveway or between terraces, and they hold a cut bank on a waterfront lot in Port Ludlow without the look of a concrete wall.

Land & lot clearing

Before a wall, a driveway or a home site, the lot has to be opened up. We clear brush, salal, blackberry and small alder, pull stumps, and stockpile, chip or haul the debris [VERIFY: debris handling and disposal site]. On lots near a wetland, stream or steep slope, the Critical Areas Ordinance (JCC 18.22) may require review by Jefferson County Department of Community Development before clearing starts. We will tell you if your lot looks like it sits inside a buffer, and we will not clear it until the paperwork is right.

Tree and brush removal

We take down trees that stand in the way of a driveway, a pad or a wall, and we grub out the root balls so they do not rot and settle under your work later [VERIFY: tree removal scope, size limits and stump grinding]. A tall tree leaning over a house or a power line is an arborist’s job, and we will say so. Brush and blackberry come out by the roots with the excavator, which slows the regrowth a mower leaves behind.

What a wall costs

Wall cost is driven by square feet of wall face, the material, how hard the site is to reach, and whether an engineer has to stamp it. Our starting prices are in the cost section below. Every quote comes from a site walk, not a phone guess.

How a retaining wall job goes

1. Site walk. Dusty walks the slope with you, looks at where water comes from and where it goes, and checks whether the wall sits inside a critical-area buffer.
2. Utility locates. Washington requires a call to 811 before digging. We make the call and wait for the marks.
3. Permits and engineering. A wall over the county’s height limit, or one holding up a driveway or a slope, needs an engineer’s stamp and a permit from Jefferson County DCD or, inside city limits, City of Port Townsend Development Services [VERIFY: current height threshold].
4. Clear and cut. Brush and stumps come out. We cut the bank back to the design line and stockpile any soil you want to keep.
5. Base and drainage. Compacted crushed-rock footing, filter fabric and a perforated pipe at the heel of the wall.
6. Build and backfill. Courses go up. Drain rock goes in behind them in lifts and gets compacted as we go.
7. Finish grade. Topsoil where you want it, a swale above the wall if the slope sends water at it, and the drain run to daylight.

Equipment we bring

[VERIFY: equipment list — excavator sizes, thumb, brush rake, plate compactor, dump trailer]. Access matters on the narrow driveways common around Cape George, Kala Point and the Hood Canal side, so tell us how tight the entry is when you call.

What it costs in Jefferson County

Five things set the price: wall height and length, material, access for the machine, engineering and permits, and how much debris has to leave the site.

• Segmental block walls start from [YOUR PRICE] per square foot of wall face, installed.
• Rockeries start from [YOUR PRICE] per square foot of face, rock included.
• Lot clearing runs from [YOUR PRICE] per day, with hauling billed separately.
• Engineering, when a wall needs it, is billed at the engineer’s cost plus [YOUR PRICE].

Retaining walls in Olympic Peninsula soil and rain

The ground here is mostly glacial till, with hardpan and clay layers that hold water instead of passing it through. From October to March that water has nowhere to go, and a wall with clay backfill and no drain is a dam. That is why we run a drain at the heel of every wall, and why a wall that holds a slope above a house often needs a French drain or curtain drain uphill to cut off the water before it reaches the wall. On Hood Canal slopes near Brinnon and Quilcene, and on the bluff lots around Port Townsend, we also look at the ground above the wall, because a wall cannot stop a slope that is already moving. Summer is the easiest time to build. Winter builds work on well-drained sites, but the cut has to be covered and drained the same day. See the towns we cover on our service area page.

Recent jobs

• [VERIFY: recent retaining wall job — town, height, length, material]
• [VERIFY: recent rockery job — town, purpose, rock type]
• [VERIFY: recent lot clearing job — town, acreage, what was removed]

More photos are on our projects page.