We’re a concrete contractor in Franklin, NC, pouring driveways, patios and slabs and building the retaining walls, foundations and stonework around them. On a mountain lot this is the work that decides whether everything built on top of it stays put.
Block and natural stone walls sized for the load behind them, with drainage gravel and weeps so water has somewhere to go. A wall without drainage is a wall that leans.
Poured slabs, driveways, walkways and patios, formed and reinforced for the grade rather than poured flat and hoped for.
Settlement, cracked block, bowed walls and failed footings on older mountain homes, including the drainage work that caused it in the first place.
Natural stone veneer, brick, columns and steps. The finish work that makes a mountain home look like it belongs on its lot.
Repointing, crown repair, flashing and rebuilds. Chimneys take more weather than any other part of the house and are usually the last thing anybody looks at.
French drains, downspout tie-ins and regrading so water leaves the property instead of sitting against the foundation.
Most of Western North Carolina is built on grade, on fill, or on a cut into a hillside. That makes retaining walls, footings and drainage the load-bearing decisions on a property, and it is why a wall that would stand for decades on flat ground leans out here in three years.
The failures are almost always about water rather than weight. A retaining wall with no gravel backfill and no weep holes becomes a dam, and the soil behind it turns into hydrostatic pressure with nowhere to go. A driveway poured without attention to how the lot drains gets undermined from below. A foundation crack is usually a drainage story that started years earlier.
This region gets rainforest-level rainfall, so the volume of water moving across a sloped lot during a heavy year is genuinely significant. Building for it means gravel, weeps, drain tile and grade that carries water away, and none of it is visible once the job is finished.
The same crew has done federal and municipal work, including the Great Smoky Mountains National Park visitor center in Cherokee and the Town of Franklin water plant, where the inspection standard is higher than anything a residential job faces.
A retaining wall holds back wet soil, and wet soil is far heavier than dry. Every wall we build, block or natural stone, gets gravel backfill and weep holes so the water behind it has somewhere to go.
North Carolina’s residential code requires an engineered design in three cases.
On a Macon County slope the first and third come up all the time. When your wall falls into one of them, it gets an engineered design and whatever permit Macon County Planning, Permitting and Development requires before we dig, and we handle both.
If the top of the wall is a walkway or patio edge more than 30 inches above the ground below, the code also calls for a guard rail. That’s worth planning for before the wall goes up.
Engineering and guard requirements from the North Carolina Residential Code, Section R404.4.
Not always. Hairline cracks are usually normal settlement. Stair-step cracking in block, a wall that bows, or a crack that keeps widening is movement, and movement needs fixing.
Most of the foundation trouble we see started as a water problem years earlier. Downspouts dumping at the corner of the house, a yard graded toward the wall, or a leak higher up will all put water where it shouldn’t be.
So we look at the water first. Sometimes the answer isn’t a foundation repair at all, and we’ll tell you. One homeowner called us about water in her basement, and it turned out to be the roof.
“I first heard about Appalachian Roofing (Ken Smith) when I had water in my basement. A friend suggested that I may not have a basement/foundation leak but a roof leak. He gave me Appalachian Roofing’s phone number and spoke to Ken. He ( Ken ) came over very shortly after I called him and in short order confirmed that I had a roof leak and not a foundation issue. He arrived and addressed one of the leaks that day. We hired Appalachian Roofing to then replace our twice shingled leaky roof. He and his crew were polite, clean, and very professional throughout the whole project. The best part of my experience has been Ken’s follow up on making sure that every aspect of the job was finished. I would definitely recommend him to friends.”
No sales pitch. No trip charges. No pressure.
Tell us what’s going on. We respond fast and set a time that works.
Josh or Ken walks your property with you. No charge if you don’t proceed.
An honest number in writing, permits pulled. No surprises later.
Clean site, on-time crew, and we stand behind the work after we leave.
Josh or Ken comes out to your property, looks at the project, and listens. We want to hear what you’re picturing, what you want out of it, and anything you’re worried about.
Then we put together a free, personalized quote. Look it over, ask us anything, and compare it to any other quote you’ve received.
We like being compared. We show up on time and prepared, our pricing is competitive, and our customers have given us a 4.9-star rating across 70+ Google reviews.
Every Appalachian Contracting job is backed by a firm handshake. If it isn’t right, we make it right. No job is fully billed until you are satisfied with it, and the workmanship carries a 3 to 5 year warranty depending on the job.
Permitted from footing to punch-list, built for mountain grade.
Learn more →Engineered for grade, drainage and the way WNC homes sit on a slope.
Learn more →Tear-offs and repairs detailed for the rainfall this region actually gets.
Learn more →Almost always drainage. Water builds up behind a wall with no gravel backfill and no weep holes, and the pressure pushes it out. Rebuilding one without fixing the drainage just resets the clock.
Two things decide it: how far the wall has moved, and why. If the footing is sound and it is a drainage problem, sometimes we can correct it. If it has rotated or the base has failed, rebuilding is usually cheaper than repairing twice.
Yes, and steep is normal here. It means more forming, more reinforcement and real attention to how water runs across the slab. We price that honestly up front.
No. Some hairline cracking is normal settlement. Movement, stair-step cracking in block, or a bowing wall is not. We will look at it and tell you straight rather than selling you a repair you do not need.
Yes, repointing, crown repair, flashing and full rebuilds. Chimney flashing is one of the most common roof leak sources we find, so we often catch it during a roof inspection.
Yes, once it holds back more than 48 inches of soil, crosses a property line, or supports a building. That comes from the North Carolina Residential Code. Shorter walls still need drainage behind them to last.
Where the work requires it, yes. Structural and foundation work generally does.
Free on-site estimate, an honest written price, and a firm handshake guarantee on every job across Western North Carolina.
or Call 828-634-5200Thanks for reaching out. A real person here reads every one of these, and we’ll call you back today.
Rather not wait on us? Call and we’ll pick up.
Call 828-634-5200One small favor while you wait. Make us a preferred source on Google. It puts our answers in front of you first the next time you go looking for roofing help around here.
We run out of 33 Riverview Street in Franklin, NC 28734, and take concrete and masonry work within about 50 miles. That covers Franklin, Otto, Highlands, Cashiers, Sylva, Dillsboro and Bryson City.
Concrete and masonry usually sit under something else we build. See general contracting in Franklin, our deck building in Franklin, additions and new construction, or gutter installation in Franklin if the water problem starts at the roofline.
