how I build a dry stone wall

Devin Devine, Stone Man
610-301-4269 devin@devineescapes.com

How to build a dry stone wall, summed up in one sentence: build it thick, double-faced with the length of the stone set into the wall,with plenty of through-stones, with well-packed hearting, no vertical joints, wider at the base then at the top and with heavy cap stones that span the width of the wall.

DIY stone wall and hardscaping help

My rates for DIY phone/email consultations/video chat consultations are as follows:

$125.00 for a one hour consultation

Monies are payable via Venmo or add $5 for paypal

 

This article is going to be an overview of dry stone wall building.

A fairly comprehensive guide to how I build dry stone walls. This will serve as a helpful resource, for contractors, aspiring artisans and DIY homeowners as well. I’ve been at it for some decades now and I can tell you two things:

1. My walls hold up
2. In this article I will tell you everything about how I build walls, from foundation to cap stone. 

The TL/DR is summed up by the following bullet points:

• build it thick
• Double-faced
• set the length of the stone into the wall
• plenty of through-stones
• well packed hearting
• no vertical joints (one over two, two over one)
• cap spans the width of the wall (cap stones are also through-stones)

^That’s about all you need to know. But I will elaborate further.

Related content: lifting heavy stones how to move large stones without heavy equipment

double-faced (AKA “double-skinned”) dry stone walls

Coursed masonry, with random jumpers and half courses.

 

 

Feel free to hit up the TIP JAR buy me some new hammers.

I build my walls thick, and double-faced. They don’t fall down. When I go in to repair/rebuild someone else’s stone wall….it’s usually single faced, only one stone thick, with rubble and soil behind it. Or gravel-filled.

• foundations
• drainage considerations
• organize your stone
• corners and cap stones

Foundations for dry stone walls

Dig down about 8 inches or so, removing all organic matter, dark colored soil and roots, then compact the subsoil. Next, rake out approximately 6 inches of roadbase gravel and compact that. Both the subsoil, and road base gravel may be compacted with a hand tamper or a vibratory plate compactor.

Drainage considerations for dry stone walls

No need for fabric, gravel, or pipes behind your wall. It’s dry-stone, right? Water can flow right through it. Just build it thick enough and well-hearted. Fact is, I used to run a pipe behind my walls, the way paver guys do, creating a drainage system, behind their landscape-block walls. the walls I built with fabric–13 years ago–still stand. The walls that I’ve been building for the past 11 years, with no fabric/gravel/pipe behind the wall–these walls are also still standing.

Essentially, we can find no reason to use fabric/gravel/pipes behind our walls, no benefit, but some potential problems.

• All that gravel behind your wall can potentially hold a ton of water, creating the hyrdrostatic pressure that you were trying to avoid
• imagine little bits of gravel, all piled up behind the wall–migrating their way into the wall. Like ball-bearings, like a bunch of ball bearings in-between your wall-stones. Nope! (back when I did used to use fabric and gravel behind my walls, I was careful to avoid this eventuality….it CAN be done without causing problems. But again–it is entirely unnecessary and that sounds like a gamble with nothing to win, but plenty to lose
• the people who use fabric/gravel/pipe behind their stone walls are usually paver contractors, your typical hardscape contractor who does pavers and maybe a bit of stone. Often, you’ll see failing walls with gravel pouring out of them–either they build a single-faced wall and just back-filled with lose gravel (bug no-no) or they built the font of the wall, built the back of the wall and then infilled with ball-bearings, I mean gravel.

Organize your stone

You have through-stones, corner stones (quoins) and cap stones, wall-stones, larger rubble and hearting.

Cap stones

Cap stones and corner stones first. You want your cap stones to span the width of the wall, and be fairly heavy. Sort out all the stones that are of appropriate size. My ideal cap stones are usually right around 14 inches deep (the width of most of my walls, at the top) and 4 to 6 inches thick, varying lengths.

Corner stones and wall ends

Corner stones and cap stones are often interchangeable–if I can’t find the right corner stone from my corner stone pile, I’ll have a look at the cap stone pile. Corner stones are going to be larger, square stones. I prefer most or all of my corner stones to span the width of the wall….so if the wall is 2′ wide at the base and 14″ wide the cap…then I’ll be looking for heavy stones of about those sizes.

A boulder may be used, in place of a built corner. This can be done for aesthetic reasons, to economize on perfect corner/cap stones, to save on the labor and trouble of building the corner–or just because you happen to have some decent boulders on hand.

Is a boulder corner stone/end stone easier to set or harder to set, then to build a traditional wall-end/wall corner? I don’t know about that. For the boulder, you need to dig deep and/or set in concrete….might need some heavy equipment and/or some pry bars/levers/rollers and strong back(s), to get the boulder in place. An eye for beauty and form comes more into play too, in my opinion…if you’re bringing a boulder into the mix in a stacked stone wall, the boulder will stand out as an accent piece. As such, you want it to look good.

A built corner too, takes care, and also takes the best of the best of your available stone–I say that because the stones that I usually use, for my built corners and wall ends–are stones that could be used as cap stones, or through-stones. They span the width of the wall, are on the heavy side and would make good cap stones and they are also square, or can be made square easily enough.

For me, the choice between a built corner or wall-end and a boulder–is just aesthetic preference, which changes job to job, site to site, and is also influenced by locally available and on-site materials.

Through-stones

Through-stones are stones long enough to connect the front of the wall, with the back of the wall, tying it all together and giving the wall much of its strength.

Face-stones

Face-stones, here refers to wall-stones that will look good and are large enough, to be used in the face of the wall, but that are not well suited to be used as corners, caps, or through-stones.

Generally, you want the face stones to be set with the length running into the wall, rather than out across the wall. The walls that I’ve repaired have usually (almost 100% of the time) been single-faced walls, with the length running out across the wall, backfilled with rubble and soil, or even worse–gravel.

Larger rubble

If you’re building a retaining wall, then larger rubble, funny-shaped stones and stones without much of a face on them, can be used in the back of the wall, and doesn’t need to be pretty, just stable.

Hearting

Hearting in made up of smaller rubble, stones too small to be used as a stable face-stone. Chunks of stone. You don’t want to fill your wall with little gravel sized bits. Don’t shovel your hearting in to place. Fit them stones nicely–this is the heart of your wall.

Usually, we create a a bit of hearting by cutting stone to fit, usually just with a hammer. Various chisels are in stand-by, the grinder’s not too far and the gas saw is usually with me, although it’s rarely used on a dry stone wall job.

How much stone trimming, shaping and cutting is done on a wall depends somewhat on the stone type, and also on the job–where is it located? Is this a pretty wall, part of a garden or patio? Or is it retaining a hillside and needs to be strong and look good, but won’t be seen from up close. Also, what type of stone is it, and how is it sized? Many types of stone cleave off in nicely planed pieces, and can be knocked into a square shape with just a few whacks with the hammer.

Now that you’ve got your foundations in and your stone organized….get stacking! Remember to stretch and hydrate! I will update this article (soon enough) with more progress photos, some notes about stone cutting, and some guidance for how to do the who stacking part.

Afterword

As far as hammers go, you’ll at least want to have a rock pick and a 3-pound mini-sledge, maybe a mash hammer. For chisels, start out with a tracer…or even a 2″ wide steel brick chisel.. If you stay with it for a couple years or longer, you’ll eventually want a hand-set (lately it;s starting to become my favorite chisel) and maybe a point.

You’ll also want a dead blow mallet, for setting the base stones. Lately, I find myself using a rawhide type dead blow mallet, such as this one right here.

 

If this is your first time building a dry stone wall, then I hope this article has been helpful and I especially want to encourage you. Follow a the rules–stretch and hydrate (all else are mere guidelines) organize your stone, and build yourself a stone wall.

Hopefully I’ve been a decent teacher, but listen carefully to the stone and you may find that stone itself is the best teacher of all.

 

If you need more help, send me your photos and tell me all about it:

 

DIY stone wall and hardscaping help

My rates for DIY phone/email consultations/video chat consultations are as follows:

$125.00 for a one hour consultation

Monies are payable via paypal, Venmo or zelle

 

Devin Devine, your hardscaping guru(tm), is a stone mason and sculptor, a magical man, based out of the Pocono Mountains in Pennsylvania.