Retaining walls in Church Hill
Down the Holston from Kingsport, Church Hill's rolling lots look across the river valley toward Bays Mountain.
Church Hill is a city in Hawkins County with 6,998 residents in 2020, incorporated in 1958. It sits at about 1,217 feet among the rolling hills of Smith Bend, overlooking the Holston River, with Bays Mountain on the southern skyline. The town began as a trading post and stagecoach stop, and it takes its name from a Methodist church built on a hill above the valley that still stands on Grandview Street. U.S. 11W runs through town toward Rogersville in one direction and Kingsport in the other.
Typical Church Hill projects
- Holding back the bank behind homes on the slopes facing the river
- Leveling a sloped yard for a garage, garden or play area
- Replacing old tie walls along driveways off 11W and the side roads
- Relaying stone walls around older houses near the center of town
Building above the river
Lots that tip toward the Holston tend to collect water from everything uphill. Before a new wall goes in, have the contractor trace where runoff comes from, whether a swale above the wall would catch it, and where the base drain will empty without washing out the slope below.
Who handles permits?
Church Hill is its own city, so addresses inside its limits go through Church Hill rather than Kingsport. Property outside the city falls under Hawkins County. Ask the contractor to confirm which office covers your parcel before any digging starts.
Common questions
Do you cover Church Hill and Mount Carmel?
Yes, along with Surgoinsville and the rest of Hawkins County. Call with your address.
Does a Church Hill wall need a Kingsport permit?
No. Church Hill is a separate city, and unincorporated land around it falls under Hawkins County. Confirm with whichever office has jurisdiction over your lot.
Services in Church Hill
- 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.