Concrete block walls in San Angelo TX - a wall that stays straight and sheds water

Most people who call about a block wall want privacy along a property line, a fence that won't sag like wood, or a slope that stops creeping into the yard. A wall built as a fence takes sun and rain on both faces, and its footing is what keeps it from tipping or sliding, so the parts you'll never look at decide how long it stays straight. The price moves with the wall's length and height, whether it holds back soil and needs drainage, which way we build it and what goes on top, while the schedule mostly waits on the footing setting up, the weather and any city inspection. Your own number comes from the on-site estimate, after I've stood where the wall is going.

It starts with a talk at the spot. We go over mortared block, laid course by course, against block stacked dry with a coating on both faces, and if you want the block itself to show, I'd mortar it, since a coated wall reads as one smooth face. Then I show you where the control joints go, the straight vertical breaks that let the wall crack where we choose instead of where it likes, so a line there next year won't worry you. From there we dig and pour the footing, lay or stack the block with reinforcement where the plan calls for it, set drains if the wall holds back soil, and finish with a cap of brick, cast stone or natural stone, because a good cap on top keeps water out of the block. We clean up as we go and leave you a straight wall and a tidy yard.

Some block walls hold up a house instead of marking a property line, and that's foundation block wall installation, a heavier job with its own planning. Block also makes a plain, sturdy base for a grill island or a bar, which is where our outdoor kitchen masonry work usually begins.

Before we settle on a height, we check it against the city's fence rules. In San Angelo's residential districts, other than R&E districts, the city limits every part of a fence or enclosure to 8 feet, and any fence or enclosure that extends into a required front yard to 4 feet. The city writes those limits for fences and enclosures, so if you're unsure how they apply to your wall, or whether it needs a permit, the place to ask is the city's Building Permits & Inspections office. When a job does need a city permit, we handle the paperwork with that office and plan our work around the inspections.

Then there's the ground. About 59% of Tom Green County's soil area is expansive clay, the kind that swells when it gets wet and shrinks as it dries, so we look hard at your spot before planning the footing and keep water from pooling at the base. We run into that clay on jobs all over San Angelo and in the cities around it.