Uneven ground is one of the most common installation challenges, so our street benches are designed with that in mind from the start. The goal is simple: the bench should sit level, feel solid when someone sits down, and not put stress on the frame or anchors.
Most of our benches use adjustable leveling legs, also called leveling feet. Each leg is a threaded stainless-steel assembly that gives roughly 1.5 inches of vertical adjustment. You can raise or lower individual corners to match high and low spots, then lock each leg with a jam nut. This solves the majority of sidewalks, pavers, and slightly sloped plazas without visible shims.
For more irregular surfaces, the base plates include slotted anchor holes. The slots give you side-to-side and front-to-back flexibility when drilling into concrete or stone. If one edge of the plate lands on a low spot, we recommend a non-compressible composite shim or a small bed of epoxy grout under the plate before anchoring. That way the load transfers evenly and the bench won't wobble later.
Some heavier commercial models have pivoting feet or self-aligning bases. These feet can rotate a few degrees to match the slope, so the leg isn't side-loaded. This is especially helpful on sloped concrete or uneven brick where a fixed foot might only make partial contact.
A typical install looks like this:
1. Position the bench and check the general location.
2. Level the seat in both directions using the adjustable feet.
3. Mark anchor points through the slotted base plates.
4. Use shims or grout only where the surface gap is too large for the feet to handle.
5. Tighten all anchors and lock nuts, then recheck level after a few days of use.
If the bench is going onto soil, gravel, or grass, we suggest setting it on small concrete pads or buried footings first. Adjustable feet help with fine leveling, but they aren't meant to carry a bench on soft ground that will settle. For extremely steep sites, we can also provide extended legs or custom base plates so the bench doesn't have to rely on stacked shims. As with any outdoor bench, a little surface prep goes a long way.