If you live in a particularly hilly Rochester Hills area, you may have a retaining wall. A retaining wall is a structure that generally keeps soil from moving out of place. This can be extremely important to protect, and if you do not keep up with retaining wall repairs, you might be putting a number of things at risk.

By not performing retaining wall repairs on a regular basis, you leave yourself open to several problems that could do a lot of damage to you, financially speaking.

• Injuries to pedestrians. Often, a retaining wall is on your Rochester Hills property to create room for a sidewalk between your yard and the road. Those who live on hilltops will see these retaining walls on the front of their yards. In this case, you have a legal obligation to keep that retaining wall maintained, as it is your property. If it fails and soil and/or water wind up flowing down onto the sidewalk, you will be responsible for clearing the sidewalk – and you also may be legally responsible for any injuries to pedestrians that result from this failure. Retaining wall repairs can keep you from having to deal with this.
• Damage to your property (or others’). During especially heavy rains, if your retaining wall’s drainage system is blocked or damaged, pressure can build up behind the wall and eventually cause a landslide-type reaction. When this happens, water, soil, and stone can all travel very quickly, plowing into your property and possibly the property and possessions of your neighbor. Maintaining your retaining wall can reduce the likelihood of this happening.
• Damage to your vehicles. Some retaining walls exist next to driveways. If this is true in your case, then that retaining wall is protecting your car from damage. If your car is parked in the driveway and your retaining wall fails, it can do major damage to a vehicle. Retaining wall repairs can keep that wall in top shape, averting major disasters involving your car. While you might be able to deal with a failed retaining wall in certain situations, it is difficult to handle significant damage to your car – especially if you use your car on a regular basis, as most people do.

As you can see, retaining wall repairs on a regular basis can keep you from putting yourself at risk of tragic instances like these. As Michigan weather can be unpredictable at times, and you never know what kind of pressure your retaining wall will be under, perform regular retaining wall repairs to keep it in place and doing its job.