ADU Soils Investigation & Retaining Wall Review in Piedmont, CA

Piedmont is named among the Bay Area's top-tier estate-ADU cities, with its own objective design standards for accessory units. Its hilly terrain and many decades-old retaining walls add a wrinkle most flatland ADU projects don't have.

A large share of Piedmont properties have existing retaining walls, some original to homes built well before current seismic and drainage standards. When an ADU is proposed near one of these walls, AK Geotech evaluates its apparent condition and stability alongside the standard soils investigation, since an unstable or undersized existing wall can become the limiting factor for where the new structure can go.

Our Piedmont scope covers subsurface exploration, bearing capacity and settlement analysis, slope and retaining wall review where applicable, and drainage recommendations suited to Piedmont's hillside lots and mature tree cover.

What's included

• Subsurface exploration and soil classification

• Retaining wall and adjacent slope review

• Foundation type and bearing capacity recommendations

• Drainage recommendations

• Formal geotechnical report for permit submittal

If your Piedmont ADU project is near an existing retaining wall or slope, contact AK Geotech for a scoped investigation.