Sidewalks and Patios
We do small concrete work: sidewalks, walks, patios, small pads and slabs. The old concrete comes out and the new slab goes in under one company.
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Our Services
Davis Demolition and Masonry builds and repairs retaining walls in Pittsburgh and about 40 miles around. We work in every common type: block, brick, stone, poured concrete and timber. That includes walls built out of wooden railroad ties. Most people call when the wall out back is leaning, bulging or coming apart.
Demolition is our main line of work, so a failed wall does not need two companies. We break the old wall out, haul the debris off, then build the new wall. Retaining walls sit with the rest of our masonry work on brick, block and stone. Call or text (412) 720-1866 and we will come out and look at the wall.
Tell us about the job. We will call or text you back.
Water is the main reason walls go over. Soil behind a wall soaks up rain and gets heavy, and that weight pushes on the back of the wall. Engineering guidance on retaining walls calls for the fill behind a wall to be fully drained. Walls with no way to let water out are the ones that lean, bow and crack.
Pittsburgh ground makes that worse. The state Department of Conservation and Natural Resources puts the highest concentration of landslides in southwestern Pennsylvania. The same agency calls backyard landslides common in the Pittsburgh area. Steep slopes, loose soil and old slide debris set it up, and heavy rain sets it off.
Frost is the other one. Water in the ground freezes, swells and lifts anything sitting above the frost line. Old walls also fail when someone cuts into the bank below them. Loading the top with a driveway, a parking pad or a shed does it too.
Some walls can be repaired. A wall that has lost mortar or dropped a few units can often be opened up and put back. Once a wall is leaning, bellied out or broken through, patching only buys time. Then the answer is a tear out and a rebuild.
This is where being a demolition contractor in Pittsburgh pays off on a masonry job. The old wall comes out with the excavator, the skid steer and air jackhammers. Old brick, block and concrete get hauled off, and the bank is cut back for room to work.
The rebuild is where drainage gets fixed. We set the footing below the frost line, at the depth the local code office calls for. Clean stone goes in behind the wall, with a perforated pipe at the base to carry water out. On a solid wall we leave weep holes through the face for the same reason.
We see a lot of timber and railroad tie walls around older Pittsburgh yards. Ties were an easy way to hold a bank back, and many of those walls are decades old now. The bottom course rots, the spikes let go, and the wall bellies out and steps out of line. We still build tie walls when that is what you want.
Old ties come out with the wall and leave with the rest of the debris. EPA says creosote treated railroad ties are sometimes recycled as landscaping timbers. It also says not to burn creosote or other preservative treated wood in a residential setting. So the ties get hauled off, never burned on the job.
How high you can go is a code question. The residential code Pennsylvania uses draws the line at 48 inches of unbalanced fill. It drops to 24 inches when the wall also carries load, like a driveway above it. Above those heights an engineer works out the design, and we build the wall to it.
We look at the job and give you a price before any work starts, across Pittsburgh, the South Hills, the eastern suburbs and about 40 miles around.
(412) 720-1866From the first call to a clean site at the end, here is how it goes.
Call or text (412) 720-1866, or send the form. Tell us what is coming down and where it sits.
We come out and go over what is being removed, what it is built of and the access. You get a price before any work starts.
We go over what your municipality requires and who handles each step. Utility shutoffs, One Call marking and any asbestos survey happen before demolition starts.
The teardown or the masonry repair gets done. We keep you posted during the job and handle added scope as it comes up.
Construction and demolition debris is loaded out and hauled away. On a teardown the lot can be graded, topsoiled and seeded.
Common questions about retaining walls across Pittsburgh, the South Hills, the eastern suburbs and about 40 miles around. If yours is not here, call and ask.
We do small concrete work: sidewalks, walks, patios, small pads and slabs. The old concrete comes out and the new slab goes in under one company.
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We repoint, parge and rebuild stone, brick and block foundation walls across Pittsburgh. Exterior waterproofing means digging the wall out, coating it and backfilling with drainage stone.
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We do brick, block and stone work across Pittsburgh and about 40 miles around. Brick pointing and brick repair are the core, along with chimneys, stucco, retaining walls, small concrete work and foundation walls.
Learn MoreDemolition is the main line of work at Davis Demolition and Masonry. Houses, garages, sheds, interior gut outs, concrete and commercial interiors are the everyday jobs.
We hold the City of Pittsburgh general contractor license the city requires for demolition permits. We are an EPA Lead-Safe Certified Firm and a registered Pennsylvania home improvement contractor.
A building background sits behind the demolition work. On an interior job that decides what comes out and what gets left standing.
A failed wall or chimney can come down and go back up with the same company. Debris leaves with us, and the site is left clean at the end.
Tell us what is coming down, what it is built of and where it sits. Call or text (412) 720-1866, or send the form with what you need taken down.
Tell us about the job. We will call or text you back.