Retaining walls in Standish, Maine.
Standish has slopes in the places people most want to use: the banks above Sebago's shore, the hillsides around Watchic Lake, and the riverbank lots along the Saco near Steep Falls. A wall that holds a lawn or a parking pad level on that ground carries a lot of soil, and the town's lake and river rules decide how and where it can be built.
Our retaining walls come in three forms, granite veneer, natural boulder and segmental block, and on a Standish lot the choice usually follows the soil and the distance to the water.
Walls inside the shoreland zone
Building or rebuilding a wall is an alteration of a permanent structure, and next to a great pond or river that falls under Maine's Natural Resources Protection Act as well as local shoreland zoning. DEP notes that most work within 75 feet of such a resource can use a permit by rule only where there is no practicable alternative to working that close. A failing seawall-style bank wall at a Sebago camp is a different conversation from a new decorative wall on the lawn, and the paperwork reflects that.
Along the Saco, the Saco River Corridor Commission lists walls among the structures it regulates within 500 feet of the river, and up to 1,000 feet where the 100-year floodplain runs wider. The Commission's jurisdiction also covers alteration of a shore, bank or floodplain, which is exactly what a riverbank wall does.
Drainage behind the stone
The comprehensive plan describes Standish ground as a mix of sand and gravel deposits around the lakes and larger bodies of unsorted, gravelly till elsewhere. Sand behind a wall drains well until fines wash in; till holds water and pushes harder when it freezes. Either way, a wall here is built on a compacted footing with clean stone behind it and a way for water to leave, so frost has nothing to grip.
Boulder walls suit the wooded lake lots, where they sit comfortably among pines and let water weep through. Segmental block makes sense behind a new house on a rural lot, where the wall is taller and the geometry is tighter. Granite veneer belongs at a village entry in Standish Corner or Steep Falls, where the wall is seen from the road.
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 Standish, Maine.
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