Retaining Walls in West Seattle

Because the exemption that normally covers a small wall has three conditions and the bluff fails one of them. Seattle exempts a wall four feet or lower, measured from the bottom of the footing, provided it is not in an Environmentally Critical Area and causes no damage to adjoining property. Large stretches of the West Seattle bluff carry steep slope or landslide-prone designations, and inside those the exemption does not apply at all — height stops being the deciding factor. It is not an obstacle so much as a different process, and it is far cheaper to plan for than to discover.

Often, with the right design and the right process — but it is genuinely a structural question rather than a landscaping one, and the honest answer for a specific site sometimes involves an engineer. Ground with slide history is sensitive to two things: what you load onto it and where water goes. A wall adds load, and it also changes drainage patterns above and below itself. Doing that well means understanding the slope first. What we will not do is build a wall on that ground as though the designation is not there and leave you with the consequence.

It affects the fixings and any metalwork rather than the wall itself. Concrete block, poured concrete and natural stone are essentially unaffected by salt-laden wind — but railings, ties, brackets and any exposed hardware in an exposed Alki or Fauntleroy position will corrode noticeably faster than the same fittings a mile inland. The adjustment is specification rather than design: better-grade fixings and fittings on anything structural or anything you will touch. Planting above and around the wall is the other thing that changes in those positions, since exposure limits what will establish.

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