Retaining walls in Blountville
Sullivan County's historic seat mixes 18th-century buildings with newer homes on the rolling ground near the airport.
Blountville is the seat of Sullivan County and, unusually, it isn't an incorporated town at all. It's a census-designated place with 3,120 people in 2020, and the only Tennessee county seat without a city or town government. It sits higher than Kingsport, at about 1,539 feet. Its historic district holds buildings from the 1700s and 1800s, including the Deery Inn, and the courthouse burned during the Battle of Blountville in 1863. Tri-Cities Regional Airport is here, and Boone Lake and Appalachian Caverns lie just south of town.
What brings Blountville owners to us
- Stone walls on older properties that need a section relaid
- Walls holding up long gravel drives on rural lots
- Terracing yards in subdivisions on rolling farmland
- Walls on lake lots sloping toward Boone Lake
Permits come from the county
With no town government, Blountville addresses go through Sullivan County Planning and Codes, whose office is on Highway 126 in Blountville. The county adopted the 2018 International Residential Code effective April 1, 2018, and says building permits are required for all types of residential housing. Its permit page doesn't address retaining walls, so ask the office or your contractor whether yours needs one. The county also lists stormwater management and floodplain permits among those a project may need.
Caverns nearby, karst underneath
Appalachian Caverns is a reminder that the limestone here dissolves. A contractor working near a sinkhole or a dip in the yard should probe the ground and build the base to bridge soft spots rather than set block on top of them.
Common questions
Who issues building permits in Blountville?
Sullivan County Planning and Codes, since Blountville isn't an incorporated town. Your contractor can confirm whether a wall needs one.
Do you cover Piney Flats and Bluff City too?
Yes. Share the address when you call and we'll route it to a contractor in that area.
Services in Blountville
- Block retaining wallsInterlocking concrete block walls that terrace a sloped yard, hold a driveway cut or frame a patio.
- Failing wall repairRepair a wall that's leaning, bulging or dropping blocks, or rebuild the section that's giving way.
- Timber wall replacementRemove rotting landscape timbers and railroad ties and put in a block or stone wall that drains.
- Stone retaining wallsDry-laid limestone, fieldstone, boulder and stone-faced walls for older homes and garden terraces.
- Drainage behind wallsAdd or repair the drain pipe, stone backfill and outlets that keep water from pushing a wall over.
Nearby areas
Blocks creeping forward or an old tie wall going soft?
Call and a Kingsport-area retaining wall contractor will come out, look at it and quote the job.