Boulder and block walls, hillside terracing, and slope repair across the Greater Colorado Springs area. We do the excavation and haul the rock ourselves, so the wall, the backfill, and the finish grade come from one crew.
Most of what makes a wall last is buried. The excavation behind it, the compacted base under it, the drain rock and outlets that give water somewhere to go. Get those wrong and no amount of good-looking stone on the front saves it.
That is the part we have always done. Mountainside ER is an excavation and quarry-direct materials company, so the digging, the structural fill, the drain rock, and the finish grade are all in-house. Nobody is waiting on a supplier delivery or a second crew to show up.
Along the Front Range that matters more than it does in easier ground. Clay that swells with moisture, rock close to the surface, freeze-thaw all winter, and storms that arrive all at once. We size walls and their drainage for that, not for a catalog.
Heavy rock set to hold a grade, the same build as the hillside terrace we put in behind a new home in 2024. Reads as landscape, works as structure.
Big textured concrete blocks set by machine to hold a serious cut. Straight runs, curves, and stepped tops that follow the slope.
Two or more shorter walls stepped up a slope instead of one tall one. Usually the cheaper and better-looking answer on a steep lot.
Walls built to stop a hill that is actively moving, tied into swales and riprap so runoff stops pulling the toe out.
Drain rock, filter fabric and outlets behind every wall. Water is what takes walls down, so this is not the part to skip.
Steps set into the terrace so the new grade is usable, not just held. Built into the wall, not bolted on after.
Leaning, bulging, or failed walls, including old timber walls that have rotted out. We dig it out, fix the drainage, and rebuild it.
The excavation, the structural fill, and the finish grade above and below the wall. One crew handles the whole shelf.
A wall usually travels with other work. See excavation & grading for drainage corrections and erosion control, landscape materials for the rock, drain rock, and structural fill, and site prep when the wall is holding a pad or a building.
When a lot needs a deep cut into the hillside, these are the walls we build: heavy stamped-face concrete blocks, stacked and set by machine. If a wall will stand over 4 feet, it needs a design stamped and approved by an engineer in most cases, and we build to that drawing. Behind every wall goes a real drainage system, corrugated drain pipe bedded in crushed rock, so water never builds up and weakens the wall.
A new home was built right on the lip of a hill. Great views, and an unprotected drop-off behind the back patio that washed material into the yard every storm. We anchored the slope with a heavy rock terrace and a short retaining wall, brought in fill and crushed gravel to level a safe shelf at patio elevation, and set steps into the terrace so the lower grade is actually usable. It was sized so a second terrace can drop in later without redoing the structural work.
We are a quarry-direct materials company first. The boulders, drain rock, structural fill and crushed gravel a wall needs come off our own trucks, so you are not paying a hardscape crew to mark up a supplier’s delivery.
A wall is mostly excavation. Almost everywhere else the digging, the wall, and the final grade are three vendors and three schedules. Here it is one crew and one number.
Clay that swells, rock close to the surface, and storms that dump all at once. We size drainage and backfill for that, which is why the 2024 terrace is still holding.
Short walls we build to spec. Once a wall is tall enough to need a stamped design, we bring the engineer in and build to their drawing instead of guessing at it.
Send us the site and we will walk it, tell you whether it needs one wall or a terrace, and quote it for free.
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