Price the job from cost, then convert to dollars per linear foot. Do not start from a published per-foot number and work backwards. Two 40-foot walls can differ by several thousand dollars once height, drainage, geogrid, and an engineer stamp are in the bid.
Homeowners shop length. These do not scale with length alone:
Face area — length × (exposed height + embedment). Twice the height is twice the block, plus more stone behind it
Drain-stone volume and a perforated pipe that has to run the whole wall
Geogrid layers that typically appear around 4 ft exposed and add a layer every couple of feet after that
A 90° corner — extra cuts that stay the same on a 30 ft wall as on an 80 ft wall
An engineer stamp and a permit, which many jurisdictions treat as a step near 4 ft, not a foot
Machine time, dump fees, and travel that are a trip, not a linear foot
If you match a cheaper per-foot quote that was written for a 3 ft garden wall, you are matching someone else's job, not yours.
A bid that holds together
Measure length, exposed height, and embedment. Face area is the takeoff, not length.
Price block and cap from face area and length. Price drain stone from cubic yards, not a guess.
Add geogrid as its own layers × depth × cost. Zero layers on a short garden wall is a decision, not a default forever.
Time face labor as hours per square foot on easy access, then multiply by wall type and height.
Add corners, excavation, and drain placement as their own hours. They do not shrink when the wall is short and tall.
Load the wage (taxes, workers' compensation, insurance, PTO). Price from loaded labor, not take-home.
Add engineer, permit, travel, and machine as their own line.
Recover overhead as a percent of direct cost, then set margin as a share of the customer's price.
Only then look at price per foot — and at the walk-away price if a homeowner asks you to sharpen it.
What this is not
This is not an engineered wall design, a soils report, a manufacturer table, a permit approval, a code inspection, or tax advice. It is arithmetic on numbers you enter. Confirm soils, drainage, geogrid, embedment, and every invoice before you send a price.
It is also not a fence bid, a concrete slab bid, or a deck bid. Those are different jobs. This prices a stacked or formed retaining face plus the drainage and reinforcement that face actually requires.
Common questions
How much should I charge for a retaining wall?
Charge from your own cost: face area (length times total height including embedment), block and cap, drain-stone volume, perforated pipe, geogrid layers, crew hours times a wall-type and height factor, corners, excavation, engineer and permit fees, overhead, and the margin you intend to keep. Convert that price to dollars per linear foot at the end for comparison, not as the bid method.
Why is a per-linear-foot quote dangerous?
Length is the number homeowners shop. Height cubes material and labor. Drain stone, geogrid, and often an engineer stamp appear as height grows. A 40 ft, 6 ft engineered wall is not twice a 40 ft, 3 ft garden wall — it is a different job. Matching a cheaper per-foot quote written for the short wall is how a sold job becomes a loss.
Does this include an engineered design or a permit?
No. The calculator prices the install from numbers you enter. Soils, manufacturer tables, geogrid design, permits, and inspections are the contractor's, the engineer's, or the AHJ's to apply. Do not treat the tool as a design, code, or soils determination.