Retaining walls in Falmouth, Maine.
Falmouth's terrain climbs from twenty miles of Casco Bay shoreline up through ledgy ridges to Blackstrap Hill in the west, and the Presumpscot River and its tributaries cut ravines through the middle of town. Grade changes come with the territory, and a retaining wall — granite veneer at an entry, a terraced run of natural boulders, or a structural segmental block wall behind a new build — is often what turns a slope into a usable yard.
Eroded silt slopes and shallow ledge
The NRCS soil survey maps a series of steep ground in Falmouth as Suffield silt loam, 25 to 45 percent slopes, eroded — soils formed in fine glaciolacustrine deposits. Silt holds water, loses strength when saturated and pushes hard against anything built to retain it. A wall on that material needs a free-draining gravel zone behind it, a drain pipe at the base to let water out, and a footing set below the depth where frost will move it.
Elsewhere the challenge runs the other way. The survey lists Lyman soils over bedrock at about 18 inches, and Lyman-Abram complexes are mapped as very rocky. Walls on those lots are often keyed into or stepped over ledge rather than set on a trench dug to a uniform depth, and boulders excavated on site can sometimes become part of the wall itself.
Coastal bluffs and the shoreland overlay
The 2024 Comprehensive Plan describes much of Falmouth's coastline as coastal bluffs and includes a hazard map from the Maine Geological Survey classing them from highly unstable to stable. A wall near the top of a bluff is not the place to improvise; it is worth knowing the bluff's classification before designing anything that adds weight or redirects runoff toward the edge.
The town's shoreland overlay reaches 250 feet from the normal high-water line of Highland Lake, the Presumpscot and Piscataqua rivers, tidal waters and larger wetlands, and 100 feet from designated streams, and development inside it needs shoreland review and a permit. Within the state's buffer strip, openings in the tree canopy larger than 250 square feet are not allowed, so wall layouts near water are drawn around existing trees.
We plan every wall for drainage and frost first, then choose granite veneer, boulder or block to suit the site and the look of the house.
Granite · Boulder · Block
How we handle retaining walls
Whether it is a granite veneer entry wall with lantern pillars, a terraced boulder slope or a structural block wall behind a new build, we engineer for drainage and frost so the wall you pay for once stands for decades.
See the full retaining walls service page or everything we do in Falmouth, Maine.
Retaining Walls in nearby towns
- Retaining Walls in Cumberland
- Retaining Walls in Portland
- Retaining Walls in Yarmouth
- Retaining Walls in South Portland
- Retaining Walls in Westbrook
More services in Falmouth
- Hardscaping in Falmouth
- Landscaping in Falmouth
- Landscape Design in Falmouth
- Planting & Garden Beds in Falmouth
- Hydroseeding, Sod & Turf in Falmouth
- Lawn Aeration & Overseeding in Falmouth
- Fall Cleanup & Leaf Removal in Falmouth
- Commercial Mowing & Cleanups in Falmouth
- Excavation & Land Clearing in Falmouth
- Septic Systems in Falmouth
- Tree & Shrub Services in Falmouth
- Tree Removal in Falmouth
Sources for the local facts on this page
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