Swimpool 360 designs and builds retaining walls in Toronto, York Region and Durham: segmental block, natural stone and armour stone walls that turn an awkward slope into level lawn, patio or pool terrace. Because we also build pools, grades, drainage and deck are planned together, and we repair walls that lean, bulge or rot.
Every wall we quote starts with the ground. We shoot the rise and run with a laser level, mark where the wall must start and stop, and hand-auger the slope to see whether it is clay till, sand, old fill or thin topsoil. We trace the water too: downspouts, sump discharge, a neighbour's swale or spring seeps.
Then we note what the wall will carry and what is in the way. A parking pad, shed or future pool above the wall changes the design. Toronto's private tree bylaw generally protects trees about 30 cm in diameter and larger, and neighbouring municipalities have their own rules. Gate widths set the machine size, and Ontario's excess soil rules govern how surplus earth leaves. The result is a written scope for your retaining wall installation. Preview the level space a wall could add in our backyard pool planner.
Dry-stacked units from commercial-grade wall systems, built to the manufacturer's charts. Our choice for curves, built-in stairs and walls that need geogrid.
Price a Block WallOntario limestone wallstone, hand fitted and dry laid with a backward lean. Ideal for garden-height walls and older homes where cast block looks wrong.
Discuss a Stone WallMachine-set quarried blocks for long slopes and seating edges, with matching step stones. Sizes and per-tonne pricing are in our armour stone guide.
Armour Stone GuideFormed concrete on a footing below frost depth, left smooth or clad in stone veneer. Suits modern lines, tight side yards and fire feature backdrops.
Plan a Feature WallSitting-height walls with a wide cap, and raised beds with their own drainage and liner, designed alongside the planting.
Garden Design & PlantingWalls that carve a flat pool pad, equipment shelf or patio from a slope, laid out with the pool so neither undermines the other.
Interlock for TerracesTell us how much your yard drops and what you want on the level ground. We will measure and send a written scope.
Most backyard walls need no permit. The ones that do should be sorted out before any block arrives.
The Ontario Building Code lists certain retaining walls as designated structures. In general terms, a wall with more than 1 metre of exposed height (roughly 3 feet 3 inches) is captured when it is next to public land, next to a walkway or route serving a building entrance, or next to privately owned land that is open to the public. Such a wall needs a building permit and a licensed professional engineer's design. Even outside that rule, we include engineering in the quote when:
Swimpool 360 handles the coordination. We book the engineer's visit and supply the survey and wall system specifications; the engineer issues stamped drawings setting base depth, geogrid layout, drainage and setbacks. We file the permit, then schedule inspections and any field reviews during construction. You keep the drawings and sign-off letter. Local requirements differ from town to town and get revised, so we check them for your address before ordering materials.
Seven stages, whether it is a two-day garden wall or a three-week engineered terrace.
Rise and run shot with a laser level, soil probed, water sources traced, and access, trees and loads above the wall noted.
Wall line, top-of-wall heights, material samples, base and drainage specification, drain outlet location and an itemized price.
Where needed, we coordinate the engineer's drawings, building permit and any conservation authority permit before scheduling.
Utility locates booked, the wall line staked and painted, and the machine route across the lawn covered with ground mats.
Topsoil stockpiled for reuse, the trench cut to firm native subgrade, and the base compacted and levelled before the first course.
The wall rises in compacted lifts with geogrid where designed. We photograph the drainage before it is buried and send you the pictures.
Caps glued, a shallow swale shaped behind the top, sod or planting restored, and a walkthrough showing where the drain outlets.
Every stone retaining wall we build has a free-draining zone and perforated pipe behind it, but most crews leave the end of that pipe to chance. We fix the outlet at the design stage: the pipe daylights at a lower grade beyond the wall, surfaces through a pop-up emitter in the lawn, or empties into a gravel soakaway sized for its catchment. It never discharges onto a neighbouring lot, which also keeps you in line with municipal grading rules.
Longer walls get a cleanout riser at the high end so the pipe can be flushed with a garden hose instead of dug up. Downspouts and sump lines emptying near the crest are rerouted, and a shallow swale behind the cap catches runoff before it soaks in. Beside a pool, the deck slopes away from the water and often straight toward the wall, so a channel or edge drain collects that runoff first.
We will tell you plainly whether a wall can be fixed where it stands.
Usual cause: Water and frost pressure behind weak drainage, or a wall too shallow for its height.
What we do: Take the run down to sound courses, rebuild base and drainage, add grid if needed, reset the original units.
Usual cause: Saturated backfill, often native clay, or a soft spot in the base.
What we do: Open the section, remove the clay and rebuild with clean drainage stone and fabric.
Usual cause: Settlement, frost lifting a shallow base, or cap adhesive that never bonded.
What we do: Lift, level and glue the caps and upper courses; rebuild from the bottom if the base failed.
Usual cause: No fabric at the joints, or a silted drain with no outlet.
What we do: Open the wall at the leak, add fabric and clean stone, flush or replace the pipe.
Usual cause: Rot at the tie-backs and buried ends, hidden until late.
What we do: Replace with block or natural stone on a real base. Patched timber rarely lasts.
Usual cause: A footing above frost depth, no weep holes, or overload from above.
What we do: Assessment first. Stable hairline cracks are sealed; a moving wall is replaced.
One honest limit: drainage cannot be retrofitted from the front of a wall. If water is the problem, the wall comes down to the failed course, with sound units numbered as they come off so the rebuilt face matches.
If a tall wall is moving quickly, or it holds up a driveway or pool deck, keep people and vehicles off the top and call us at 647-239-7665. Where needed, an engineer assesses it before anything is disturbed.
A sloped lot does not rule out a pool; it means the pool and the landscape retaining wall are planned as one structure, set out from the same benchmark. The wall footing stays outside the soil supporting the pool walls, and the pool dig stays clear of the wall's base and grid. Suitable soil from the pool dig can build up the low side instead of being trucked away, but never in the drainage zone.
Details are where pool terraces go wrong. Fence posts on a wall can slice through geogrid, so we set sleeves or post footings during the build. A wall can also change how enclosure height is measured or give a foothold from outside, so we check the bylaw described in our pool permits and fence guide. Conduit for landscape lighting goes in before backfill. On steeper ground a semi-inground pool can let the pool wall do part of the retaining. Pair this with our pool installation service and one crew owns the whole grade.
Installed 2026 ranges in Canadian dollars. Face area is the visible length multiplied by the exposed height, and every rate includes excavation, base, drainage and backfill. Build times are working days after delivery.
| Wall or Item | 2026 Installed Range | Typical Build Time |
|---|---|---|
| Segmental concrete block wall | $35 to $75 per face sq ft | 3 to 5 days for about 150 face sq ft |
| Poured concrete or stone-veneered feature wall | $45 to $90 per face sq ft | 1 to 2 weeks with forming and curing |
| Single-course armour stone wall | $55 to $110 per face sq ft ($150 to $350 per linear ft) | 2 to 4 days for most backyard runs |
| Dry-laid natural stone retaining wall | $60 to $120 per face sq ft | 1 to 2 weeks, hand fitted |
| Engineered multi-course wall | $90 to $140 per face sq ft, plus engineering | Add several weeks for design and permit |
| Stone steps set through the wall | $600 to $1,500 per step | Usually built with the wall |
| Narrow or difficult yard access | Add $3,000 to $10,000 | Smaller machines, hand carrying or fence removal |
| Retaining wall repair or rebuild | New-wall rate for the rebuilt run, plus removal | Quoted after we open up the problem area |
| Example Project | Approximate Installed Cost |
|---|---|
| Two-tier pool terrace: two block walls, each 50 ft long and 3 ft exposed (300 face sq ft) | $10,500 to $22,500 |
| Replacing a rotted 40 ft timber wall, 2.5 ft exposed, with segmental block (100 face sq ft) | $3,500 to $7,500 plus removal |
| Natural stone planter walls around a patio, 60 face sq ft in total | $3,600 to $7,200 |
| Single course of armour stone across a 45 ft back slope | $6,750 to $15,750 |
Estimates only. Small walls carry a minimum charge because the machine, float and crew cost the same to bring in for ten blocks or a hundred. Engineering, permit fees and planting are extra. Request a line-by-line wall price for your property.
One visit gets you measurements, a drainage plan and a written price.
Much of Toronto, Vaughan, Markham, Pickering and Ajax sits on dense clay that stays wet for days after a storm. We budget a deeper base, more drainage stone and a dependable outlet, and never compact on saturated spring clay.
Around King, Aurora, Richmond Hill, Stouffville, Uxbridge and our base in Zephyr, soils are often sandy or silty. They drain fast but wash out, so joint fabric, firm compaction and erosion control above the wall matter more than extra pipe.
Ravine-backed yards in Toronto, Whitby and Oshawa often need conservation authority sign-off. Newer lots in Newmarket and East Gwillimbury usually have an approved grading plan and a shared rear swale that a wall must not block.
Narrow side yards on older Toronto streets often favour hand-placed block over armour stone. See every town we cover on our service areas page, or browse finished hardscape work in the project gallery.
Design ideas and materials compared for Ontario yards.
Stone sizes, weights and per-tonne pricing.
Patios, walkways and pool decks for the level ground a wall creates.
Planting for terraces and planter walls.
Cap lights, step lights and low-voltage wiring for walls.
Waterfront walls, rip rap and the approvals they need.
Block, natural stone and armour stone retaining walls with the base, drainage and paperwork done properly. Free site visits across the GTA.
Give us a rough length and height, or just describe the slope and send a photo afterwards. We will book a site visit and follow up with a written scope.