A Retaining Wall Monitoring Checklist for La Jolla Homeowners

Retaining wall problems often build slowly. The lead-up can look like this: a crack that gets a little longer each winter, weep holes that slowly stop draining, a fence along the top that starts to lean. The trouble is that slow change is hard to see when you walk past the same wall every day.

Monitoring is how you catch it. The goal isn’t to diagnose anything; working out why a wall moves is a job for an on-site evaluation. The goal is a simple, dated record, so that whoever looks at the wall can tell whether it’s stable, changing slowly, or speeding up. This checklist covers how to set a baseline, what to look at on each part of the wall, how often to check, and which changes deserve a call.

If you’re trying to understand why a wall is leaning, start with our post on leaning retaining wall causes. For how water behind a wall works, see drainage behind retaining walls. Repair options and City permit rules are on our retaining wall repair page.

A wall that looks the same every day can still be moving. A dated record turns “I think it’s worse” into something an engineer can use.

Before you start: safety and limits

• Watch from stable ground. Don’t climb the wall, stand at the edge of a tall one, or dig at its base or behind it.
• Don’t add load at the top. City Information Bulletin 220 lists surcharge loads such as driveways, walkways, structure footings, and fences as one of the conditions that bring a wall under permit rules. Stacking soil, firewood, heavy planters, or a new spa near the top changes what the wall is holding back.
• Decide your triggers in advance. A New York City Department of Buildings training presentation on inspecting older retaining walls makes a point worth borrowing: every monitoring effort needs a plan set ahead of time, with limits that trigger action. The last section of this post gives you a starting list.

This checklist supports an evaluation. It doesn’t replace one.

Step 1: Set a baseline

Pick fixed photo spots. Choose two or three places to stand for each run of wall and mark them with a paver, a stake, or a painted dot on the hardscape. Taking every later photo from the same spots, at about the same time of day, makes changes easy to compare. Get an overall shot, close-ups of cracks and joints, and photos of the top and the base.

Write down the basics. Note the approximate exposed height, the wall material (poured concrete, block, stone, timber), any tiers, and what sits near the top: a driveway, a patio, the house itself, a fence. City rules measure wall height from the top of the footing to the top of the wall, so the part you can see understates the real height. That matters later for permits and design.

Record the wall’s starting angle. Some walls are built leaning slightly back into the slope on purpose, which is called batter. The NYC presentation notes that checking the alignment along the top of a wall helps separate a wall built with batter from one that is tipping. So don’t judge lean by eye. Hold a long level or a plumb line against marked spots and write down the reading at each one.

Gather what paperwork exists. Permits, plans, a prior inspection report, or even the year the wall went in all help.

Step 2: Add simple reference marks

• Crack ends. Make a small pencil or paint tick at each end of a crack and write the date beside it. If the crack runs past the tick later, it has grown.
• Crack width. Measure at the same marked points each time with a ruler or a plastic crack-width card. A crack gauge glued across a crack is another option.
• Lean. Use the same level or plumb line at the same marked spots every time.
• Top alignment. On a long wall, stretch a string line between the two ends at the top, or sight along the top edge. Mark and measure any place where the wall bows away from the line.
• Joints and connections. Measure the gaps at control joints, corners, and where the wall meets steps, the house, or another wall.

Use the same spots, tools, and method each time. Otherwise the readings can’t be compared.

Step 3: What to check, part by part

The face

• New cracks, or existing ones that are longer or wider
• Horizontal cracks, or stair-step cracks in block or stone
• A bulge partway up the wall
• Damp patches, white mineral staining, moss or algae, or soil washing out through joints

Weep holes and drains

• After rain, and after irrigation, do the weeps drain?
• Is the water clear or muddy? Muddy discharge can mean soil is moving through the drainage path.
• Weeps that never drain, even after a soaking, are worth noting too.
• Are area drains along the top clear, and can you still find the outlets, or has landscaping buried them?

The NYC inspection form checks the same kinds of items: whether weeps function, whether water or silt is coming through the wall, whether area drains and downspouts work, and whether soil drains away from the wall.

The top (the retained side)

• A gap opening between the soil and the back of the wall. Measure it.
• Cracks in the soil or paving parallel to the wall, or sunken spots and small holes just behind it. The NYC presentation notes that outward rotation of a wall is preceded and accompanied by sinkholes and tension cracks at the top.
• Fences, posts, or pavers tilting, and water ponding behind the wall after rain
• New loads: parked cars closer to the edge, added soil, a hot tub, a new structure

The toe (the base, on the low side)

• Soil bulging or heaving at the base, or ground sloping toward the wall
• Erosion or a gap under the footing
• Signs the wall is sliding forward, such as soil pushed up in front of it

The surroundings

USGS lists warning signs that ground may be moving: new cracks or bulges in the ground or pavement, water flowing on a slope or ponding where it never did before, leaning poles, fences, or trees, broken water lines, and soil pulling away from foundations. Note any of these near the wall, and note sprinklers or roof drains aimed at the soil behind it. Our companion post on hillside drainage before structural repair explains how to trace where that water goes.

Step 4: How often to check

There’s no single schedule that fits every wall, but this rhythm is easy to keep up:

• Baseline: now.
• Quick look: about once a month, walking the same route.
• Full log entry with photos and readings: before and after the rainy season, which in Southern California typically runs from November through April, according to USGS.
• Extra checks: after any heavy storm, an earthquake you felt, a plumbing leak, an irrigation change, or construction near the wall.

Step 5: Know what means “call now”

Arrange an evaluation promptly if, between checks:

• A crack has lengthened past its tick mark or measurably widened, or new cracks have appeared
• A lean or string-line reading has changed
• New cracks, sunken spots, or a growing gap show up behind the wall
• Weeps start running muddy, or water comes through the face where it didn’t before
• The base is bulging or the footing is being undermined
• Something changed right after a storm, an earthquake, or nearby work

If the change is fast, with movement you can see over hours or days, large new ground cracks, or a wall under a driveway, structure, or path people use, keep people and vehicles away from the areas above and below it and contact local authorities, as USGS advises for signs of ground movement. Then get the wall evaluated.

A record that shows no change through a wet season is useful information. It isn’t a certificate of safety, and it doesn’t rule out concealed problems such as a failed drain, but it gives the evaluator a much better starting point.

A simple log you can copy

Keep it in a notebook or a phone note with the photos in a dated folder. Bring it to the evaluation.

What an evaluation adds

An on-site evaluation looks at what a homeowner log can’t: the height measured from footing to top, the soil and surcharge the wall carries, how its drainage is built, its permit history, and whether a larger slope question is involved. Our retaining wall repair page lists what we examine and how repair and replacement compare.

La Jolla Structural evaluates walls on site, and we coordinate with licensed engineers as needed. That can include a geotechnical engineer when slope stability or drainage design is in question, and a structural engineer when the wall needs custom design. Professional monitoring is a normal part of serious wall work. When temporary excavations are planned next to existing improvements, the City’s Guidelines for Geotechnical Reports expect the geotechnical consultant to recommend monitoring points and a schedule. Your log is the homeowner’s version of that habit. If the wall sits on a slope above or below the house, see our hillside foundation repair page, and our foundation drainage page covers drainage that serves both the house and the wall. Our post on when to involve a structural engineer explains the usual triggers.

Cost factors, not prices

We do not publish prices. What a wall evaluation or repair involves depends on height and access, the condition of the drainage, the loads at the top, whether a geotechnical investigation is needed, whether City standard plans can apply or custom engineering is required, how much of the wall is affected, and which permits or overlays apply. Our posts on what drives foundation repair cost and questions to ask a foundation company help when you compare proposals.

Next step

Set your baseline this week: mark the photo spots, tick the crack ends, and take the first readings. If anything on the “call now” list is already happening, don’t wait for the log to fill in. Request a Free Quote for an on-site evaluation anywhere in La Jolla, or call (650) 739-6537.

Sources (accessed October 9, 2026)

• City of San Diego Information Bulletin 220, Retaining Wall Permits (October 2024)
• San Diego Municipal Code §129.0203(a)(5)
• City of San Diego, Guidelines for Geotechnical Reports (2008)
• New York City Department of Buildings, “Inspection of Old Retaining Walls,” D. Eschenasy, P.E., Build Safe | Live Safe Conference (2014)
• U.S. Geological Survey Fact Sheet 2005-3107, Southern California Landslides: An Overview (prepared with the California Geological Survey)
• U.S. Geological Survey, “What are the signs of landslide development?”