A retaining wall is a long-term investment, so do not DIY it. We have built hundreds of professional retaining walls in the South Hills. Every wall is built with Geogrid and comes with a drainage system, on a compacted stone base, and we finish the job by fixing the grass or landscaping around it. Retaining walls carry a 5-year craftsmanship warranty.
Upper St. Clair properties tend to be larger, with mature trees, sloped lots, and existing structure worth respecting. Our work here includes the outcropping walls and stone steps that make a sloped lot usable, and drainage that holds, from French drains to a drain behind every wall.
Versa-Lok blocks are the most structural and cost-effective option for retaining walls. They come in different colors, they pin together, and they are heavy, which extends the life of the wall, but they have to be built correctly. We also use other segmental blocks such as Techo-Bloc and EP Henry, and build Rosetta outcropping and boulder walls. Compaction of the base is the most important part of the job, and every wall gets a drain behind it.
"Quinten walks every Upper St. Clair property himself before anything gets quoted or scheduled." Quinten, Owner
All of our Upper St. Clair landscaping work → All retaining wall services →
Requirements vary by town. We help with permits.
Walls often come with a patio, steps, or grading.
Versa-Lok, Rosetta outcropping, and boulder walls engineered for the slope, with real drainage behind every course.
Permeable and exposed aggregate patios, graded to move water away from the house.
Full-property plans with 3D visualization before anything gets built.
Five new Versa-Lok walls at the driveway and backyard of an Upper St. Clair home →
A whole-property transformation with new walls, patio, steps and plantings →
A Versa-Lok block retaining wall built by Q&A Landscaping typically runs $90 to $100 per square foot of wall face (small, tall, or hard-access walls run $110 and up), installed. To find your wall's square footage, multiply its length by its height: a wall 10 feet long and 3 feet tall is 30 square feet. Every job has a $2,500 minimum. That is the price of a finished wall, not a pallet of block. It covers the compacted stone base, the block, pins and caps, the drain pipe along the bottom of the wall, and the clean stone backfill behind it.
Last updated October 2026. These prices come from Q&A Landscaping's own installed Pittsburgh jobs and are the same math the calculator uses. Price is per square foot of wall face (length times height), installed.
| Wall height | Easy access | Normal access | Complicated access |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2 ft | $90 | $100 | $110 |
| 3 ft | $90 | $100 | $110 |
| 4 ft | $90 | $100 | $110 |
| 5 ft | $110 | $110 | $110 |
| 6 ft | $110 | $110 | $110 |
Walls 4 feet tall or less run $90 to $100 per square foot, depending on access. Walls taller than 4 feet, walls of 30 square feet or less, and hard-access walls run $110. Walls over about 4 feet usually need a permit and geogrid. Every job has a $2,500 minimum, and walls over 200 square feet are priced per project.
| Wall height | Square feet | Easy access | Normal access | Complicated access |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 ft | 80 | $7,200 | $8,000 | $8,800 |
| 3 ft | 120 | $10,800 | $12,000 | $13,200 |
| 4 ft | 160 | $14,400 | $16,000 | $17,600 |
| 5 ft | 200 | $22,000 | $22,000 | $22,000 |
| 6 ft | 240 | Priced per project (over 200 sq ft) | ||
Add $2,000 if the yard needs extensive grading and $4,000 if extra fill has to be brought in. Replacing an existing wall adds 5%. Concrete footers, railroad ties, and difficult removals are priced at the site visit.
The calculator is built on our real installed Versa-Lok pricing in the South Hills, not national averages.
