Deciding to build a dry laid field stone wall is not a decision that should be taken lightly. It will require a great deal of your time and a huge amount of physical effort to complete the work. There are several things to consider before you start your project and the least of them is the cost.
You must first choose the type and color of stone you are going to use to build your wall. There are literally hundreds of combinations of stone types and colors available today. If you have access to free field stone or cobblestone, that can save many hundreds or perhaps thousands of dollars. A heavy duty truck is required to carry any real quantities of this stone as an auto can be easily overloaded and can even be dangerous to drive..
Dry laid field stone walls can be very beautiful when completed and will last for many, many years with a minimum of upkeep. An occasional check to assure that no stones have been knocked loose or removed by children at play is all that is required. Dry laid means of course that there is no mortar used to hold the stones together and instead dry laid walls depend on gravity to hold and keep their shape over time. If you see a country stone wall, stop and take a good look at the wall. You will see that both sides lean slightly in towards the middle of the wall and the top is slightly concave as well.
In most cases it took farmers many years to construct their walls from the stones removed from their fields as they plowed for new crops each spring. Winter freezing and thawing pushed the stones to the top of the ground for the awaiting farmers plows to find them. These stone walls were not constructed for their beauty but of necessity to mark the boundaries between farms as well as to keep the stones from injuring their horses feet as they pulled the plows.
If you are using natural stone for your wall, remember that the faces of the wall will not be perfectly flat as when using man made stone or masonry units. There will be some ins and outs as the stone rises above the grade. If you are placing the wall along a property line it is suggested that you hold the wall back a few inches to allow leeway in the layout and to be assured you are not building on your neighbors land. One of the best ways to do this is to use wooden stakes or steel pins at each end of the proposed wall and placing a string or dry line between them. Tie a loop on one end of the string and place over the first pin and then pull and wrap the line on the second stake as tightly as possible. Whenever you lay a stone, the stone edge simply cannot cross this string line. Get as close as possible but never cross it. Keeping the stone faces as close to the string at all times will assure as even a face of your wall as possible. Keep raising the string as your work progresses. As your ability and eye grows with the work you will be tell if a stone does not fit correctly or look as good as it should.
After your pins and string lines are installed, take a step back and see if the line is really where you want the finished wall bottom to be at the end of the work. You will not want to tear it down and move it later believe me. If the location is good, excavate a trench the width of your wall, to an average depth of the diameter of your largest stones. If your largest stone is six inches in diameter, excavate six inches deep. The trick here is to slightly slope each one half of the width of the trench slightly downwards into the middle of the wall. Slightly means just slightly. You want the base stones to tip inwards but try keeping the tops as level as possible at the same time.
Now start laying your base stones. These will generally but not always be, your largest stones. Many stone masons prefer to place some of the largest stones randomly throughout the face of the wall to add character and interest to their finished work. True stone masons also do not use hammers or stone saws to shape the stones they use. Each stone is turned over and over to view and then choose the best face to place to view and the best side to fit on top of the stones laid below. Each stone must nestle into the adjacent stones and not rock back and forth. Keep the larger stones to the outside face and then fit the smaller uglier stones into the center out of view. Do not be tempted to place small chips to hold stones in place. Repeated freeze-thaw cycles will cause these chips to move or fall out and cause your wall to fail. Placing small stone chips and fragments into interior voids is fine but do not let them become a structural part of the finished work.
As your wall starts to progress upwards keep laying new wall in front of you. Do not finish a ten foot section for example and then start another section. Your end result will be a bunch or ten foot connected sections instead of one long smooth wall. As your wall height increases, the wall width actually becomes thinner than the width at the base. This can be as pronounced as you wish or as slight as you can make it but in any case all stones must tilt slightly towards the middle of the wall. The reality here is that when the ground freezes and heaves, the entire wall is lifted upwards causing the stones to push outwards from the middle. Due to the built-in inward tilt of the stones, the stones may reach an almost vertical state on the face but as the ground thaws and sinks, the stones simply return to their original placement shape due to good old gravity and the wall is safe.
Do not be afraid to step back every once in a while to admire your work as it progresses. You may see a stone or stones that would look better somewhere else or may look better turned a little and now is the time to fuss before the wall is finished. Do not get discouraged with your work progress either. Stone walls take a good long time to build but will last a good long time as well and will far surpass the life of any wooden fences you could build.
A well laid stone wall can take many weeks or months to construct but is an enduring piece of the landscape and will remain as a legacy of your work. Do it right and your great grand children will be able to admire your work. You will not be sorry.
Pete
Your Friendly Building Inspector
BICES-Building Inspection & Code Enforcement System Software
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