Sunday, November 22, 2015

7/2015 Havre De Grace MD, Seating Wall, West Mountain w Colonial Blue Stone


7/2015 Havre De Grace MD, Seating Wall, West Mountain w/ Colonial Blue Stone. A deck has been built inside this wall for an outdoor entertaining space. The wall is 22" off the deck 3 sections of wall - 6', 8' and 13'. Blue stone caps are 3" thick x 22" wide.  A larger on site black granite boulder was placed in the corner of the wall.  Colonial blue stone from Balducci Stoneyard (from their quarry) Great stone to work with. Flush tie stones set into the wall and spaced. Normal 1:6 batter with a protruding foundation except on inside of wall in order to allow for deck to be built.

Design and layout by Bradley Development & Design . Thank you Brad for inviting me on board to be apart of your creation.











I shaped the cap around the boulder to help make it fit in better. Amazing out the boulder just happened to be so close in height as the wall. 


Start


West Mountain Stone Bulk


PA Colonial Blue stone from Balducci Stoneyard @ Maryland Line.


Building the foundation and setting the frames.


Bloch Shear air assisted stone splitter. Helps me snap and square up my bulk stone for nice corners and faces. 


The client had a boulder which he had moved on his property several times over with in the last 20 some years. It was finally time to have it put into the wall. So he hired up a good friend with a wrecker tow truck. 


One large strap to lift it and move it to the new home in the seating wall. I have to say this was a first for me. Extremely exciting to see a boulder of this size made of black granite. Thats one heavy rock. 


With the approval and placement by the client the boulder was set in the corner with a cutout in the side as a seating spot. 





Tie stones being placed. Normally a wall of this size would not need ties. But due to the fact that the new fill dirt I felt it would be best to keep them in the design. They were to be protruded but due to future plans for up lighting they would have cast a shadow.


On the jobsite I love using my dingo to help me move stone around the tight areas. It also really helps me for setting my heaver cap stones without a helper. Before placing each cap I would have to chisel of the saw cut on the stones. Keeping them on the forks of the dingo made for quick work.


As you can see I spent a lot of time in the mud. The hardest part of this jobsite was all the toads and frogs I'd have to move everyday I worked. The loved the mud puddles. 

Many thanks to Brad and the client Bob for allowing me to create your backyard seating wall. I'm sure you'll have years and years of enjoyment. 

4 comments:

  1. seeing the process to set and build around that boulder is really interesting. the ultimate in using "local" resources!

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    1. Thank you Patti, the bould was a big part of the project. Amazing how well it sat in the all. A real joy ot build around.

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  2. Very nice project. Are the caps set in mortar. If not, how did you get those slabs stable enough for a seatwall?

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    1. Hello Paul, I really don't know much about mortar. I'm learning. But no I didn't use any liquid products to help set my caps. The key is two elements 1) A good solid stone (weight) to keep from coming off the wall. 2) Small stones to use to place under to make the proper adjustments to set them. Check out this blog to read more about my method to my madness. Thank you for your comment.

      http://www.rockinwalls.com/2012/10/how-to-set-flat-cap-cope-stones.html

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