Retaining Walls and Sea Walls in Watertown and Northern New York
Walls Built for Northern New York Loads and Frost
G&G Excavation builds retaining walls and sea walls for residential, commercial, and agricultural properties across Jefferson County and the surrounding region. We excavate the site, prepare the base, build the wall, and install drainage behind it. A wall without proper drainage will fail. Hydrostatic pressure will push even a well-built wall over time if there is nowhere for water to go.
Northern New York has its own set of wall-building challenges: frost lines that run deep, clay soils that hold water, and shoreline conditions on the St. Lawrence and inland lakes that require materials designed to handle ice and wave action. We build for what the wall will actually see over the long term.
Retaining Walls
What Retaining Walls Are Used For
A retaining wall holds back soil to prevent movement, erosion, or slope failure. Common uses include driveway cut banks, terraced yards, garden walls, farm structures, and commercial grading or parking areas.
Materials
We build retaining walls with segmental block, natural stone, or timber depending on the wall height, load, setting, and property style.
For commercial walls or heavy-load applications, we follow engineering requirements and let you know if a structural engineer is needed.
Drainage Behind the Wall
Every retaining wall we build includes proper drainage, using gravel backfill, drain tile, or both depending on wall height and soil conditions. Without drainage, water pressure builds behind the wall and can cause stone, block, or timber walls to fail much sooner.
What We Build
Shoreline erosion is a real issue along the St. Lawrence River, Black Lake, Chaumont Bay, and the inland lakes throughout Jefferson and Lewis counties. Ice action, wave wash, and soil saturation all contribute to bank loss over time. We build shoreline protection structures that hold the bank and absorb the energy that would otherwise take it.
Materials for shoreline work include riprap (large stone placed to absorb and redirect wave energy), block, and stone-faced structures. The right approach depends on the shoreline type, water conditions, and the amount of bank being protected.
Permits and DEC Review
Any work at or below the ordinary high water mark in New York State requires a DEC permit. Shoreline work near the St. Lawrence or navigable waterways may also require Army Corps of Engineers review. We flag this at the site visit and help you understand what is needed before work starts. Do not begin shoreline work without understanding your permit requirements; fines for unpermitted shoreline disturbance are significant.
Service Areas
- Watertown
- Carthage
- Adams
- Black River
- Evans Mills
- Clayton
- Cape Vincent
- Alexandria Bay
- Theresa
- Dexter
- Chaumont
- LaFargeville
- Redwood
- Fort Drum area
- Lowville
- Lyons Falls
- Croghan
- Port Leyden
- Copenhagen
- Gouverneur
- Canton
- Potsdam
- Massena
- Ogdensburg
- Hammond
- Pulaski
- Mexico
- Sandy Creek
- Lacona
- Camden
- McConnellsville area
Service Area
Gravel driveway installation and resurfacing across a 50-mile radius of Watertown:
- Jefferson
- Lewis
- St. Lawrence
- Oswego
and northern Oneida counties.
Get a Free Estimate
Tell us the wall type (retaining or shoreline), the approximate length, the height differential you are working with, and the material you are considering. We will come look at the site and give you a written number.