Retaining Wall Repair in Potwin Place, Topeka
Potwin Place was platted in the early 1880s by banker Charles Wolcott Potwin. It ran as its own city for about a decade before Topeka annexed it. Brick streets, Victorian and Queen Anne houses, and one of the oldest platted grids in the city. The walls holding these yards and walks are old, and old here means built before anybody put a drain behind a wall.
Old Walls on Native Backfill
A wall built in this district got backfilled with the dirt that came out of the hole. Eastern Kansas clay swells when it takes on water and shrinks when it dries out. Every wet spring loads the wall. Every dry August leaves a gap behind it. Winter freeze pushes once more. A hundred small moves add up to a lean you can read from the sidewalk.
Reset a Bay, Rebuild a Run
We open the back of a wall, not only its face. A bay with a modest lean over a sound base comes apart, gets a proper stone column, and goes back together on the same line. A run that has rotated forward or dropped at the bottom course gets rebuilt. Truing up a face and leaving the clay behind it puts the same wall back on the same cause.
Working a Historic Street
Access is tight here and the brick pavement stays out of it. We work by hand or with a compact machine, stage material off the street, and keep every sound unit and stone for the rebuild. Clean angular drainage stone and filter fabric go in behind the new face, with the outlet run to daylight where the water can leave.
Call (785) 555-0117 for a free estimate on retaining wall repair in Potwin.