MID TN EXCAVATOR
Retaining Wall Construction in Middle Tennessee
Precision-built retaining walls for grade support, drainage management, and long-term stability across Humphreys, Dickson, Hickman, Perry, Maury, Montgomery, and Davidson counties.
JD Lee Excavating builds retaining walls for residential properties, commercial sites, and large-acreage land development across Middle Tennessee — from single-tier walls on home sites to large-scale grade retention on commercial and development projects.
A retaining wall is only as good as what’s behind it and underneath it. Wall failures in Middle Tennessee almost always trace back to the same problems — inadequate base preparation, no drainage plan behind the wall, or a structure that wasn’t sized for the load it’s holding. We build walls that are engineered to hold grade, manage water, and stay in place for the long term.
COMMERCIAL RETAINING WALLS
Commercial retaining walls carry loads and face conditions that residential walls never encounter — heavy equipment operating above the wall, vehicle traffic, and grade differentials that require engineered solutions rather than standard block. We build commercial retaining walls from plans, coordinate with engineers on load requirements and drainage design, and construct to the specifications the site demands. Large grade transitions on commercial developments, parking lot retention, and cut-and-fill walls on industrial sites are handled with the equipment and crew capacity to move through the work on schedule without compromising the structural integrity of what gets built.
RESIDENTIAL RETAINING WALLS
Residential retaining walls on Middle Tennessee properties deal with steep grades, clay soil that holds water, and seasonal ground movement that puts constant pressure on anything built to hold it back. We build residential retaining walls with drainage built into the design from the start — gravel backfill, drainage pipe behind the wall, and outlets that carry water away from the structure before it builds up hydrostatic pressure. The wall itself is only part of the job. What goes behind it determines whether it holds for twenty years or starts moving after the first wet winter.
What Goes Into a Retaining Wall
Building a wall that holds long-term starts below grade and behind the face of the wall — not at the surface.
- Existing grade cut back to expose stable soil for footing placement
- Base trench excavated to proper depth below the frost line
- Compacted gravel base installed to provide stable, level footing
- Wall constructed in courses with proper batter and alignment
- Drainage aggregate placed behind the wall as each course goes up
- Perforated drain pipe installed at the base of the wall behind the face
- Backfill placed and compacted in lifts to avoid lateral pressure buildup
- Surface grade established to direct water away from the top of the wall
Why Most Wall Failures Start Behind the Wall
The face of a retaining wall is what people see. The drainage system behind it is what determines whether the wall is still standing in ten years. Water that builds up behind a retaining wall doesn’t compress — it pushes. Hydrostatic pressure against a wall with no drainage relief will move block, crack poured walls, and topple timber structures regardless of how well the face was built. In Middle Tennessee’s clay-heavy soil, that water has nowhere to go on its own. It saturates, it pressurizes, and it finds the weakest point in whatever is holding it back.
We design the drainage behind every wall before the first block goes in. That means gravel backfill that allows water to move freely, drain pipe at the base that carries it away from the structure, and outlets that get the water off the property rather than pooling at the toe of the wall. A wall built without that system isn’t finished — it’s waiting to fail.
25+
Years in Business
100
Mile Service Radius
$
3MM Licensed Project Capacity
Licensed & Bonded
Contractor #83847
Septic #14383
Where We Work
We’re based in McEwen, TN and run crews across Middle Tennessee — closer to home for smaller residential jobs, up to 100 miles out for the right commercial project.
Core Service Area
- McEwen
- Waverly
- Dickson
- Erin
- Hurricane Mills
- Vanleer
- Centerville
- Tennessee Ridge
- New Johnsonville
- Cumberland City
Extended Service Area
- Nashville
- Clarksville
- Columbia
- Franklin
- Murfreesboro
- Spring Hill
- Brentwood
- Lebanon
- Hendersonville
- Smyrna
Commercial
Large-acreage projects, subdivision prep, commercial site work, and infrastructure earthwork across Middle Tennessee. We carry the equipment, the license, and the bonding to handle jobs that smaller operators can’t touch.
- Land developers and subdivision builders
- General contractors sourcing a dependable excavation subcontractor
- Large private landowners with ongoing earthwork needs across
- Humphreys, Dickson, Hickman, Perry, Maury, Montgomery, and Davidson counties
- Civil engineers and architects coordinating site development
- Project managers and estimators putting together commercial bids
Residential
If you just closed on raw land and need someone to make it buildable — clearing, grading, driveway, septic, building pad — that’s the job we were built for. One contractor from raw ground to ready-to-build, start to finish.
- Homeowners building on raw or wooded acreage in Middle Tennessee
- Land buyers who need site prep before a builder can start
- People relocating from Nashville or out of state who want the process handled professionally
- Residential contractors who need a reliable excavation sub on their schedule
- First-time land builders who need one contractor to handle every phase — clearing, grading, septic, and driveway — start to finish
WHY JD LEE EXCAVATING
Unlike most small, one-man operations, JD Lee Excavating runs a full fleet of heavy equipment — giving us the capacity to handle large-scale residential and commercial projects without delay, without rental dependency, and without sending the wrong machine to the wrong job.
Our fleet includes bulldozers with rippers, excavators with heavy-duty bucket attachments, pans and scrapers, haul trucks, low boys, and dump trucks. For compaction work — particularly on building pads and pond construction — we run both a padfoot compactor and a smooth drum roller, equipment that most local operators simply don’t own. We also run a GPS-based grade control system for precision earthwork on projects where tolerances matter.
We’re capable and agile enough to turn around smaller, local jobs quickly. But what sets JD Lee apart in the Middle Tennessee market is the depth of iron behind every project — owned, maintained, and ready to work.
- 25+ Years in Middle Tennessee
- $3M Licensed Project Capacity
- 100-Mile Service Radius
- Licensed & Bonded Contractor #83847
