Service area

Landscaping in West Seattle

West Seattle is a plateau with steep edges, and which part of it you own decides what the job is. Level lots around the Junction and Westwood build quickly and predictably. The bluff-edge properties toward Alki, Fauntleroy and down the Delridge side are a different proposition entirely: ground with genuine landslide history, frequently inside Environmentally Critical Area designations, where a retaining wall is a structural question rather than a landscaping one. We treat those two halves of the peninsula as different jobs, because they are.

Get a free West Seattle estimate (425) 533-9734

From our Capitol Hill base: 20–30 minutes from Capitol Hill
Typical lot: 5,000–8,000 sq ft, with plateau lots noticeably more usable than the bluff-edge lots that carry the views.
Terrain: A plateau with steep edges. Flat through the Junction and Westwood, then severe falls toward Alki, Fauntleroy and down the Delridge side.

What we plan around here

The ground decides the job.

West Seattle is a plateau with cliffs around it, and which of those two you are on decides the whole job. Plateau lots in the Junction and Westwood are straightforward, level and fast to build on. Bluff lots toward Alki, Fauntleroy and Delridge sit on ground with real landslide history, and a lot of them fall inside Environmentally Critical Area designations where the usual four-foot wall exemption does not apply. The view lots are the ones that need engineering, not just building.

Soil: Glacial till across the plateau, with unstable bluff material along the western and southern edges where landslide designations are common.
Terrain: A plateau with steep edges. Flat through the Junction and Westwood, then severe falls toward Alki, Fauntleroy and down the Delridge side.
Water: Seattle Public Utilities. Standard SPU service. Exposed west-facing gardens dry out faster in August than their equivalent across the water, so irrigation zoning matters more here than the rainfall figure suggests.
Lot sizes: 5,000–8,000 sq ft, with plateau lots noticeably more usable than the bluff-edge lots that carry the views.
HOAs & covenants: Rare. A few newer developments have covenants; the bulk of the peninsula is standard single-family.

Building above a bluff with slide history

The west and south edges of this peninsula are not ordinary sloped ground. They carry looser material than the plateau behind them, they have documented movement in living memory, and a large share of those parcels sit inside steep slope or landslide-prone designations. Two things destabilise ground like that: adding load above the slope, and changing where water goes. A retaining wall or a terrace does both at once.

That makes work on the bluff a structural question rather than a landscaping one. On these lots we look at where surface water leaves the property before looking at what goes on it, and we would rather tell you a wall belongs somewhere else than build it in the wrong place. Uncontrolled discharge over a bluff edge, or a downspout running onto the slope, is exactly the mechanism that turns stable ground into moving ground over several wet seasons.

What we build in West Seattle

Every service, on ground we know.

Detailed local guides

Also available here

Serving West Seattle and surrounding neighbourhoods

Where this is, and what it tells you about the ground.

Lincoln Park
Bluff, forest and shoreline — the same three conditions most West Seattle gardens deal with in miniature.
Alki Beach
The flat shoreline strip, and the one part of the peninsula where salt exposure genuinely changes planting choices.
Camp Long
Sixty-eight wooded acres in the middle of the peninsula, backing onto the Delridge slope.

Neighbourhoods covered

Alki · Admiral District · The Junction · North Admiral · Fauntleroy · Gatewood · Morgan Junction · Delridge · Highland Park · Arbor Heights · Roxhill · Westwood

ZIP codes

98106 · 98116 · 98126 · 98136 · 98146

Recent work

Projects from West Seattle.

Artificial Turf

Turf lawn with cedar raised beds

A no-mow lawn for a small city yard, with cedar planters and a paved seating edge.

Long raised planter of split-face block with a charcoal capping course, filled with fresh soil, on a two-tone paver terrace

Hardscaping

Capped raised planter on a paver terrace

A raised planter running the length of the terrace, capped in charcoal to pick up the darker banding in the paving.

Newly built exterior stairs with black metal railing running down the side of a West Seattle house from the deck above to the lower patio

Decking

New stairs down to the lower patio

A West Seattle split-level where the only way to the bottom of the garden was through the house. A full-height run of stairs off the deck fixed that.

Aden crew member with a wheelbarrow beside a partly built grey block retaining wall, with stacked block and tools around them

Retaining Walls

Wall going up, crew on site

Mid-build on a West Seattle slope: block stacked, barrows running, the old surface still down. One crew on one site until it is finished, which is the only way the levels stay honest.

Curved brick paver walkway with a cobble edge and low landscape lights, crossing a bed of dark gravel towards a lawn

Walkways

Curved brick walk with lighting

Brick pavers in a double soldier course, edged in cobble and lit low along one side. The curve is there because a straight line across this grade would have needed a step.

Wall of thin stacked grey stone with a single thick stone slab set in front of it as a bench, on a concrete terrace

Stonework

Stacked stone wall and a slab bench

Thin stacked stone across the face, and one solid slab set in front of it as a bench. The bench weighs more than the section of wall it sits against.

Timber joists and boards laid out on a concrete slab beside a house with hoses and tools, at the start of a deck build

Decking

Deck frame, first day

Timber cut and laid out on the old slab, edges masked, hoses run. The photograph nobody asks for, of the day that decides whether the finished deck is level.

Local questions

What people in West Seattle ask us.

Something specific to your street? Call (425) 533-9734 — we would rather look at it than guess.

Does a West Seattle bluff lot need a permit for a retaining wall?

Very often yes, even for a low wall. The usual Seattle exemption covers walls four feet or lower that are not in an Environmentally Critical Area, but a large share of the West Seattle bluff — along Alki, through Fauntleroy and down the Delridge side — carries steep slope or landslide-prone designations that void the exemption entirely. Inside an ECA a wall of any height can require a permit, and a steep slope is defined as 40% or more grade over ten feet of vertical change, with fifteen-foot buffers at the top and toe. We check the parcel against the city map before quoting.

Does salt air near Alki affect what can be planted or built?

It affects planting and metalwork more than it affects hardscape. Exposed positions along Alki and the Fauntleroy shoreline get salt-laden wind that burns tender foliage and shortens the life of untreated or low-grade metal fixings. Concrete, stone and pavers are essentially unaffected. The practical adjustments are choosing plants that tolerate coastal exposure, specifying better-grade fixings and fittings on anything structural, and accepting that a hedge on the exposed side will always look different from the same hedge on the sheltered side.

Why do West Seattle gardens dry out in summer when Seattle is famously wet?

Because the rainfall figure describes the winter, not the growing season. Almost all of Seattle's 38 inches falls between October and March, and July and August are genuinely dry. West-facing plateau and bluff gardens on this side get the strongest afternoon sun and the most wind of anywhere in the city, so they lose moisture faster than an equivalent garden in a sheltered east-facing position. It is the main reason we specify zoned irrigation more often on this side of the water than in the central neighbourhoods.

Is it worth building a patio on a sloped West Seattle lot, or should I terrace?

Terrace, in almost every case where the fall is more than about a foot across the intended area. Building one large patio on a slope means either a tall retaining wall at the low edge or a surface that is subtly wrong to stand on, and both are worse than the alternative. Two or three smaller level platforms stepping down the fall give you more usable space, need shorter and cheaper walls, and read better from the house. On a view lot they also keep the sightline open, which one tall wall close to the building does not.

Circular stone fire pit and curved seat wall on a paver patio overlooking a valley view

Get a fixed price for your West Seattle project.

We come out, walk the property, look at the grade and the drainage, and put a written price together. No deposit, and it does not change once agreed.

Book a free site visit Call (425) 533-9734

Nearby

Areas we cover next to West Seattle.

Curved street-frontage retaining wall with recessed lighting and planting above it in south Seattle

All 25 service areas →

Free estimate

Book a visit in West Seattle.

20–30 minutes from Capitol Hill from our Capitol Hill base. Three minutes on the form and we will come out and look at it properly.

Or call (425) 533-9734