Pavers in Saint Paul, MN

Pavers in Saint Paul often begin with a wall. The city sits on steep bluffs and palisades left by the last ice age, where the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers meet, and the Capitol itself stands on a hill above a bend in the river. Plenty of backyards here fall off toward an alley or a neighbor, which means a flat patio usually needs a retaining wall, a set of steps or both before the pavers go down.

Where the permit line falls

Saint Paul's Department of Safety and Inspections requires a building permit for a retaining wall taller than 4 feet at any point. The detail people miss is how that height is measured: from the base of the footing to the top of the wall, not from the lawn. A wall that shows 3 1/2 feet above grade can cross the line once the buried course and footing are counted. A shorter wall also loses its exemption if it holds back a surcharge, such as a driveway, a parked car or a building near the top.

What the city wants to see

When a permit is needed, the application includes a site plan with setbacks and the length of wall, an elevation showing height changes and number of courses, and a section view with the wall material, footing, drainage rock, drain tile, any geogrid and the slope of the soil behind. For manufactured block, the maker's installation instructions go in with the application. Engineering is required when those instructions call for it or the wall departs from the city's standard details, and the handout notes that height, tiered walls, soil type and surcharge loads may also trigger it. Any engineered design must be signed and sealed by an engineer licensed in Minnesota. We plan the wall so you know early which side of that line your project lands on.

Property lines matter on a slope

No part of a wall in Saint Paul may sit on or over a property line unless a recorded easement agreement is in place with Ramsey County on every affected parcel. On narrow lots where the grade change runs right along the line, that rule shapes the design: we often step the wall back and use the space it frees for a planting bed rather than build up against the neighbor.

Turning a slope into usable space

• Segmental block retaining walls with drain tile and clean stone behind
• Two-level terraces with paver steps between them
• Patios cut into the hillside with a low seating wall as the uphill edge
• Paver walks that climb a side yard in short, even risers
• Releveling of old walks pushed out of line by a failing wall

Water is what pushes walls over

Saint Paul receives about 29.2 inches of precipitation in an average year, and snowmelt adds to that each spring. Soil behind a wall that cannot drain gets heavy and, when it freezes, pushes outward. We backfill with free-draining stone, run perforated pipe at the base to daylight, and grade the top so runoff does not pour over the wall face. The same thinking carries to the paver patio above it: compacted base in thin lifts and a slight fall away from the house.

Older housing, mixed ownership

Census estimates put owner-occupancy at about 52.9% and the median owner-occupied home value at $294,500. With nearly half of homes renter-occupied, both landlords and owner-occupants end up dealing with old timber or stacked-stone walls put in decades ago. Replacing one with segmental block is a straightforward project, and we can quote the wall and the patio separately so you can phase them.

Start with a site visit

Call (952) 800-9409 or

Get a Free Estimate

. We measure the grade change, check where the property line falls, and give you a written quote that shows wall height from footing to cap, drainage details and whether we expect a permit to be needed.