Elk Ridge, Utah
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Grading, drainage, terraces and retaining walls for Elk Ridge hillside lots, planned around the city's slope rules and built to handle mountain snowmelt.
“The team painstakingly put in a retaining wall that will stand for a hundred years.”
“I will definitely use you again for any future landscaping needs.”
Grading and Retaining Walls in Elk Ridge
Almost every Elk Ridge lot is a hillside lot. The city code steps homes down the slope rather than regrading the lot into a flat pad, so the house is built to fit the hill. The yard has to do the same. Retaining walls and terraces are what turn a steep slope into ground you can walk on, play on and sit on. In Elk Ridge they are the main event, not an extra.
Any wall over 4 feet, measured from the bottom of the footing, needs a permit here, and taller walls usually need engineered plans. That is a sensible rule on a mountain. The soil on this bench is gravelly fan ground, laid down over a very long time by water and debris coming off Loafer Mountain. It drains well, but it can move when it gets soaked.
We plan the grading and the walls together so water has a safe path down the hill. That means shorter terraced walls with planting between them, drains behind every wall, and swales that carry snowmelt around the house instead of into it. We confirm current requirements with Elk Ridge City on every job and bring in an engineer when the wall height calls for one.
Elk Ridge is the high, steep one, up around 5,361 feet on Loafer Mountain, where almost every lot is a hillside lot the city code steps down the slope, and the deer, wind and snow are all real.
Know your Elk Ridge ground
The Elk Ridge challenges
Elk Ridge lots can drop a long way from the front curb to the back fence. Without walls, the backyard is just a slope you cannot use, and it loses a little more soil every spring when the snow comes off the mountain.
Any wall over 4 feet, footing included, needs a permit, and taller walls usually need an engineer's plans. Skipping that step does not save money for long. It risks a failed wall, a stop-work order, or tearing it out and building it again.
The gravelly fan soil drains fast most of the year. In a big melt it can fill with water anyway. A wall with no drainage behind it takes all of that water pressure, and that is when walls start to bow out or tip forward.
In spring, water from uphill lots and the mountain itself runs down through Elk Ridge yards. Grading that ignores it pushes water against foundations, washes out planting beds, and leaves a gully where a nice slope used to be. Your yard has to be ready for it.
The J&H approach
Instead of one tall wall, we often build two or three shorter ones with planting or lawn between them. They drain better, look softer, and echo the way Elk Ridge homes already step down the hill.
When a wall goes over 4 feet, we get engineered plans and the permit. Then we build exactly to those plans, with the specified base, geogrid and drainage. No shortcuts on the part holding up your yard.
We grade swales to carry runoff around the house, put drain rock and pipe behind every wall, and run that pipe out to daylight downhill. Each piece of the plan answers one question: where does the water go next?
From our job sites
Short videos from real J&H job sites. Tap one to play it with sound.
What homeowners say
"We had a really big project (full lot project) and a crazy timeline, and Jackson and his team were awesome. They are very efficient, work hard to get things done quick, and the quality of their work is top-notch. Great company. Great guys. I would highly recommend them for any landscaping needs."
"Jackson and his crew did a phenomenal job on our back yard. I had a vision and they brought it to life. We had them do a retaining wall, grading, underground trampoline, sprinkler system, and sod. They met deadlines, communication was on point, and the whole crew was friendly.…"
"…The job was completed quickly without sacrificing quality, and the results exceeded our expectations. We would absolutely hire this team again and recommend them to anyone looking for landscaping help."
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