Seat Walls · Columbus Retaining Wall
Seat Walls & Garden Walls in Columbus, OH
Low walls built for sitting on or for edging a raised bed, set on a real base. Get a free estimate.
Serving Columbus, Worthington, Gahanna, Powell, Grove City and 27 more towns
Free Seat Walls & Garden Walls Estimate
Give us the approximate height and length, what sits above it and your town. The contractor will phone you to discuss it and book a site visit.
- Free wall estimates
- Drainage built in
- Block and poured walls
- Columbus and 31 towns
Rough height and length are enough for now. 👇
Seat Walls & Garden Walls
Seat Walls for Columbus, OH
Seat walls and garden walls are the short end of the retaining wall family, usually 18 to 24 inches tall. A seat wall may be freestanding, finished on both faces around a patio or fire pit, or it may hold a little soil on one side while offering a seat on the other. A garden wall usually holds a raised bed. Short as they are, they still sit on soil that freezes and moves, so they get the same compacted gravel pad and level first course that a taller wall would get.
The difference is in the details you touch. A seat wall needs a cap wide and smooth enough to sit on comfortably, a height that suits the chairs around it, and a straight, true top line, since the eye follows it across the yard. A garden wall that retains soil still needs drainage stone behind it, because a raised bed watered all summer is a small but steady source of water pressure. We build the walls themselves; what gets planted in the beds is entirely up to you.
What's included
What goes into seat walls and garden walls
- 01
Height for sitting
Typically about 18 to 20 inches to the top of the cap.
- 02
Freestanding or retaining
Two finished faces, or one face with soil held behind it.
- 03
Compacted pad
A crushed-stone base so short walls stay level through winter.
- 04
Comfortable caps
Wide cap units, secured to the course below.
- 05
Drainage for raised beds
Stone behind garden walls that hold watered soil.
- 06
Curves and corners
Walls that follow a patio edge or wrap around a fire pit.
Examples
Seat Walls & Garden Walls: examples
Example photos of the type of work.
How it works
Seat Walls & Garden Walls, step by step
- 1
Set the height and line
Mark the wall's path and agree on the seat or bed height.
- 2
Pad and first course
Dig, compact the stone pad and set the first course level.
- 3
Build up
Stack the courses, adding drainage stone wherever soil is retained.
- 4
Cap
Set and secure the caps along a straight, even top line.
Questions
Seat Walls & Garden Walls questions
Do short walls really need a base?
Yes. Even an 18-inch wall sits on Central Ohio soil that freezes, thaws and swells, and without a compacted pad it will rock out of level within a few winters. The base is a small part of the job and the reason the top line stays straight.
What affects the cost of a seat wall?
Length, whether it is freestanding with two finished faces or retaining with one, curves and corners, and the cap you choose. Walls that wrap a patio can sometimes share excavation with work going on nearby.
Do seat walls need a permit?
Low seat and garden walls rarely reach the heights that call for engineering, but rules vary by city, village, township and HOA. Call 811 before digging, even for a short wall.
How tall should a seat wall be?
Typically 18 to 20 inches to the top of the cap, close to a dining chair seat. Taller than about 22 inches feels like perching, and lower than 16 feels like sitting on the ground.
Can a seat wall also hold back soil?
Yes, when it is built as a low retaining wall. The soil side gets drainage stone and a fabric separator, and the seat side gets a clean finished face. It is a tidy way to level a patio cut into a slight slope.
Wall types we build
Related work
Block Retaining Walls
Dry-stacked concrete block walls that rely on weight, setback, drainage and geogrid to hold soil.
More on block retaining walls
Terraced Walls
Stepped walls that split a tall grade change into shorter tiers, each one stable on its own.
More on terraced walls
Steps Through Walls
Block or poured steps that pass through a retaining wall, with returns holding the soil on each side.
More on steps through walls
Service area
Seat Walls & Garden Walls around Columbus
We take on seat walls and garden walls across Columbus and in each town below.
Franklin County
Pickaway County
Fairfield County
Delaware County
Licking County
Talk to us about seat walls and garden walls
Describe the height, the length and what sits above it, and we will call to discuss the wall and schedule a site visit.