Santaquin, Utah
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Grading, drainage and retaining walls for Santaquin lots, from flat orchard ground that holds water to bench lots below the mountains that need terraces to be usable.
“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 Santaquin
Most yard problems we see in Santaquin start with water going the wrong way. A former orchard lot can look flat, but it was shaped for rows of trees and flood watering, not for a house with a basement. Spring snowmelt and sprinkler water drift toward the foundation and sit there. Grading fixes that. It is not pretty work, but nothing you build on top will last if it is wrong.
Up on the bench and fan ground below the mountains, the problem flips. Lots slope, the soil is loose gravel and cobble, and you need walls to get any flat space at all. This ground sits along the Nephi segment of the Wasatch fault, on fans built over a long time by water coming off the mountain. We respect that when we plan cuts and fills, and we never stack a tall wall on loose fill.
In Santaquin a retaining wall 4 feet or taller, measured from the bottom of the footing, needs a permit. That catches more walls than people think, because the buried part counts toward the height. We figure the real height early, handle the permit, and confirm current requirements with Santaquin Community Development so there are no surprises halfway through the job.
Santaquin sits up near 4,987 feet in Utah's cherry country, so the season runs a little shorter, the lots run bigger and more former-orchard, and the open summit position means real wind.
Know your Santaquin ground
The Santaquin challenges
Old orchard ground was shaped for irrigation rows, so it often has low spots you cannot see until it rains. The clay drains slowly. Put a lawn and a house on it and water pools in the same places every spring. Left alone, that water finds the window wells and the foundation, and the basement smells damp by May.
Bench lots sit on fan deposits: gravel, sand and cobble washed down from the mountains. It drains well, which is good, but it will not hold a steep cut on its own. Dig into it without a wall and the face slumps after the first wet spring, burying whatever you planted at the bottom.
Santaquin measures wall height from the bottom of the footing, not from the grass. A wall that shows 3 feet above the lawn can be 4 feet or more once you count what is buried. Build that wall without a permit and you could be asked to take it down and start over.
Santaquin gets more snow than the valley floor, and in a warm spring it melts fast. Water from higher lots runs downhill through yards. Without swales or drains to catch it, it cuts little channels through beds and carries rock and mulch out into the street.
The J&H approach
We set grades with a laser level before we move any dirt. Every surface gets a slope away from the house, and we find where water should leave your lot. On a big orchard lot that is usually many small, gentle changes spread across the whole yard.
On bench lots we often break a big drop into two or three shorter walls with planting in between. Shorter walls are easier to drain and cheaper to build right. Sometimes they also stay under the permit line, though that depends on your slope.
Water pressure knocks over more walls than the dirt does. We put clean drain rock and perforated pipe behind each wall, wrap it in fabric so fine soil stays out, and run the pipe to daylight where the water can leave safely.
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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