Great Looking Color and Texture Options

VERSA-LOK retaining wall blocks let you choose from a variety of color, texture and size options. Many color options, from solid to blended mixes, are available; check with your local producer as colors vary regionally. Colors are integral throughout the units, so modified surfaces will display color consistent with the rest of the unit. This ensures that the color of a special feature, such as a stair or column, will be consistent throughout. Units and caps of various colors can be combined for aesthetic effects. For larger projects, units with custom colors can sometimes be produced. Consult with your local producer. The faces of the units are available in the traditional split-face texture and the natural, Weathered look. VERSA-LOK units come in various heights and widths, offering different scales and wall setbacks, for a variety of applications. Also, various units can be combined in one wall to create varied patterns and special accents, such as stripes and insets. The design of VERSA-LOK wall units lets you create smoothly curved walls without the unsightly gaps seen in other systems. Special details, such as top-of-wall step downs, look attractively finished when built with easy-to-modify, solid VERSA-LOK units. Combining Standard-Cobble units provides varying widths. The Mosaic system combines units that vary both in height and width, producing a random, natural stone look.

Cost-Effective Landscaping Solution

VERSA-LOK segmental retaining walls cost significantly less than other types of walls, such as mortared masonry walls, big pre-cast blocks, or natural stone walls. Our simple systems deliver a high-end appearance without the high-end cost. Even random-looking Mosaic walls and special design features, such as stairs and columns, can be created easily with standard VERSA-LOK units. VERSA-LOK walls eliminate the need for costly structural footings below frost.

Stable and Durable

Solid VERSA-LOK units are thick concrete wall blocks with no thin sections, no voids, and no small protrusions vulnerable to damage. The setback between courses ensures that VERSA-LOK walls lean back into the retained soil, improving stability. Taller VERSA-LOK walls easily incorporate geogrid soil reinforcement; with proper design walls can exceed 50 feet in height. Solid units also provide improved durability against accidental impacts at the wall base.

Design Flexibility

VERSA-LOK units are the most design friendly units in the industry and can be modified to accommodate practically any desired layout, including curves and corners. With our solid units you can build a seemingly endless array of special landscape features, such as steps, freestanding walls, parapets, columns, seat walls, egress window wells, planters, bump-outs in walls, or walls along ponds, streams or lake shores. Smaller-scale units, such as Cobble and Accent, blend well with intimate residential settings, while still delivering 12-inch-deep, solid, stable wall faces, as does the larger Standard unit. The Harmony wall system lets you combine Standard and Cobble units in endless ways to create a variety of natural-looking designs. The Mosaic system combines units that vary both in height and width, producing a random, natural stone look.

Environmentally Friendly Hardscapes

VERSA-LOK concrete units do not create any environmental hazards like some chemically-treated products. Concrete is a sustainable material preferred by architects, designers, and engineers. The National Concrete Masonry Association has more information on sustainable building using concrete masonry.

Straight Faces

Straight faces give VERSA-LOK retaining walls an attractive classic facing. Straight faces also minimize horizontal surfaces that collect snow and ice, improving freeze/thaw resistance. Straight faces also discourage children from climbing on VERSA-LOK walls, and they eliminate insets or indents at the base of the walls, which are hard to trim and encourage invasive plant growth.

Freeze/Thaw Resistant

VERSA-LOK retaining walls do not require structural footings below frost. They are built on granular leveling pads and dry-stacked without mortar. As a result the walls retain a slight flexibility that allows them to tolerate freeze/thaw cycles.

Free-Draining Wall Face

Because VERSA-LOK walls are built without mortar, water can pass through the wall joints to minimize hydrostatic pressure behind walls.

Easy Installation

A unique pinning system, a variety of solid units that are easy to modify and don’t require core-filling, and a wide-range of design features, all combine to make VERSA-LOK wall systems favorites for do-it-yourselfers. Smaller VERSA-LOK units such as the Cobble and Accent units are individually lighter, making handling them easier. All VERSA-LOK units are designed to install simply. Even the random-appearance Mosaic system is built from simple repeating panels and easily accommodates geogrid.

Solid Units

Solid VERSA-LOK units can be modified easily onsite to create a wide variety of design features. With solid units, the side and backs of the units can be split to attractively match the front face texture. Solid VERSA-LOK units also eliminate the extra step and cost of filling voids with gravel.

Top-pinning Wall System

VERSA-LOK’s top-pinning system makes setting and interlocking units easy. Heavy units do not need to be set carefully over pins or protrusions in the units below. Rather, VERSA-LOK units are easy to slide into place and pinned from the top unit holes down into the slots in the units below. The pinning system also ensures proper setback of your walls.

Variable Bond

VERSA-LOK’s unique hole-to-slot pinning system allows the vertical alignment of units, or bond, to vary. Units do not need to be exactly half-way over units below (half bond), simplifying installation and enabling you to create a more natural appearing wall. Variable bond also allows you to create a wide variety of curves and corners. And when installed with half bond, VERSA-LOK solid units eliminate the need for special modifications or unsightly gaps between units, needed by some systems to maintain a consistent half bond.

No Special Units Needed

Because solid VERSA-LOK units can be modified quickly in the field, no special units are needed to accommodate special design features. This eliminates the problem of running out of special units if design changes occur in the field. It also ensures color consistency, because all units, modified or not, come from the same pallets.