Q. I want to build a retaining wall that’s going to look great for years. At my last house, I had a short retaining wall around a patio that started to lean out toward the lawn. The little wall was ...

For thousands of years, builders have used retaining walls to create flat vertical walls or gently sloping terraces on hillsides. While constructing a solid, lasting retaining wall might look ...

This is the last of three stories on terracing hillsides. To read the first two stories, "Slippery slopes" and "Know your hillside," go to sfgate.com and type in Deborah K. Rich. "Almost all ...

Humans have been building retaining walls for thousands of years to create flat, or gently sloping, terraces on hillsides. A lot of my readers have them on their own property — or need to build one — ...

Of all the materials you can use for your retaining wall, natural stones are some of the most durable and beautiful. Here are the best options available.

A dry stone wall is a purposeful pile of rocks, held in place by friction and gravity rather than mortar. It’s one of the oldest building methods known to mankind, used over millennia to construct ...

When we were in the market for a new home a few years ago, we were looking in a hilly town. We noticed that many of the properties had bulging retaining walls. We learned that it was due to the area’s ...