Warren Road, Cockeysville MD, Retaining Wall Project 7/2013

7/2013 Warren Road, Cockeysville Maryland, dry laid stone retaining / sitting wall 35' L x 25" H. Local stone from on site mixed with 1" Butler stone from Vinci Quarry. 

This project was on site of one of my favor jobs - a 7' high historic retaining wall with 10 floating steps. The best part is working with the homeowner John who truly understands and appreciates the craft. As you can see he has not only cleared out the site but set me up with packing stone (in the buckets). I'm not used to having a helper but this could grow on me really quick. Day 1

Related Blog: How To - Wall Stone Ingredients

 

Most of the stone we had left over from the first project was alot of irregular shapes. After just clearing out the bottom layer of old stone foundation. I begin simply setting the stone right on earth. Normally I would do a protruding foundation with the stone set below grade. With this project I placed my first foundation stone right on grade. This irregular stone doesn't allow for a protruding foundation. 

Related Blog: How To - Foundation

You will also notice I don't have any frames or string lines set up. With this project I offered to the client an hourly rate. He wanted to have the remaining stone on the driveway used to build a 2' high retaining wall. Since the stone was more irregular - string lines would be extremely helpful. 

I wanted to let my hair down and test my natural instincts to help guide me. Building with out wall frames can be a challenge. Having the driveway was my guide to follow the shape of the wall. My eyes helped to keep the stones level. Those who are wallers understand that sometimes  you can easily get hung up on focusing to much on the stone instead of the project. What do I mean my letting my hair down? Just go with it. Pick up a stone place a stone - Not second guessing - just build a wall!! - don't focus on the little stuff. This will keep you from being a productive waller. 

You will see I'm using my wagon and the John has his handy lawn mower with his metal garden cart to move stone. YOU get creative with the equipment you have to help keep your back from to much wear and tear. As a one man show I'm all about equipment that ill help save my body from to much extra labor. 

As I'm getting to the top of the wall I have now set up a line in order to ensure I build to the same wall weight all the way down. 

 Just a little more stone to go! I love my wagon. Notice the pallets of stone stacked to the right. 

John would be sure to gather up some of the best stones from the pile standing them up on end so I can see at a quick glance what thickness I needed or shape. 

End of Day 1. 

Start of Day 2, I started setting the cap stones at the end closest to floating steps working in one direction. 

When me and John started we place as many of the larger stones at the bottom of the wall. I really love these three in this section. Building with large stone is the fastest way to gain height. As you will noticed I placed these stone out far enough from each other to be able to build with small stone around them. Had I placed them all next to each other - not only would it be hard to fill the voids with smaller stone - they would have visually looked out of place UNLESS all the stone in this wall was the same size. Now not only did I used these up first to get them into the wall but they took up alot of real estate making less work. 

When I had worked on the first wall project (wall to left) I made sure to repack all the stone in order of size and use. Just in case I needed them for the future project like this one - time well spent!!!

This was a great project for me to focus on speed, quality and not thinking about each and every stone I placed. Forcing me to trust my instincts. 

The wall has a rustic feel with the larger looser joints. The smaller 1" Bulter stone plates from Vinci Quarry helped as I placed my cap stones to get them to the level I needed. They also matched the first wall. The two projects built within a year and half from each other have a complementary similarity. If you look closely you will notice the wall to the left was built with all flat bedded stone - this project (to right) was more irregular or rubble stone with some flat bedded stone mixed in. 

Related Blog: How To - Set Flat Cap / Cope Stones

John and his family do a lot of cooking - with this new retaining wall they can now walk out their door to thier edible garden (herbs, edible plants, flowers, fruits and vegetables.) 

Well done John and Family with all your plantings. 

Who's hungry now?

19 hours ( 2.5 days) total build time. Man that looks good!!!

I'm always amazed at the end of each job how a little stone transports an environment.  

How To - Tie Rocks / Through - Stones

Ties Rocks or Through Stone are the same thing.  I'll call them ties. When building a freestanding walls or retaining walls it is very important to build with ties. Tie stones helping make a wall structurally sound. Ties stones are used to help tie the front and back of the wall together. Over time the wall will settle along with rise with frost heaves making it a flexible system. The ties will keep the wall from bulging outward by lock it together.

Illustration/spec sheet provided by the Dry Stone Conservancy USA.

This is the specs for 2011 DSC competition of a historical wall at Shaker Village KY. Most walls at this site are 36" high with 12" of vertical coping stones. Ties are placed at 18" up - level, spaced out 36" on center, protruding on both sides 2-3". 

2011 Dry Stone Conservancy DSC 8th Annual event at Shaker Village in KY. This wall section only had ties placed flush on this side but protruding on parking lot side. Set on level at 17" from grade. 

This was a the Warren Road retaining wall project at the first row of tie stones placed 36" on center. The original wall did not have them. Nor was the original wall 4' wide at the base. These ties were placed at 22" up. This wall did not have any stones to act as ties. I purchased PA Blue stone in order to add them into the wall. Not all walls will have ties. Some areas which are historical may not have used ties. Some areas do not have stone adequate as ties. Some stone may not work with ties such as rubble. Some walling styles just don't use them such as in areas of Carven district of Yorkshire*. If your working with stones you can layer and creating a double wall then you should be building with tie stones. 

When possible you should always use the larges stones you have for ties - of course within reason. You want to be able to lift them with at least one or two people. You should always pack underneath of them making sure every thing is tight. My ties above I used a level to help insure they were level front to back. (this day was raining so I just happen to keep both levels on this tie under the tent-no other reason to check it twice..ha ha) Make sure just like any stone you cover your joints below. If you don't happen to have tie stones long enough for the job you can use two long stones to help run past each other. But I would advise before you consider this read up more by purchasing the DRY STONE WALLING - a practical handbook. If you don't own this book and you enjoy walling or you consider yourself a professional. You should add this to your collection! A over whelming amount of content.

This is the upper row of tie stones 3' long - tie back into the bank on the Warren Road Project.

 

Notice tie stone protruding and set level. With walls over 48" it would be suggest to use additional ties set at half way points. On this wall which was 7' with flat caps I did 2 rows of ties placed at 22" up. My tie stones I used were 2" thick. The Dry Stone Conservancy DSC suggests walls 36"- 48" tall use one row of ties half way up. Walls 48"-60" use two rows at equal height. Walls less then this ties would not be necessary. But you could stager or place them random if you had a great deal of longer stones. This will only strengthen the wall.

In this picture above the red dots show all the tie stones as recommended by the Dry Stone Conservancy DSC to be staggered or centered above the lower row.  

Tie stones are a key ingredient to make a structurally sound wall. Note: In United Kingdom not all walls use this building practice. In the USA this was very commonly found in all historic stone fences in Kentucky built by the Scottish, Irish and English immigrants. These historic walls over 100 years still stand today! Some of the walls even had ties stones which staggered through out the wall in random placement. 

I believe historical structures show us the value of "Sound" construction without a Civil/Engineer telling you other wise in the USA. The lack of education and awareness is alarming in the United States when it comes to dry laid stone construction or walls built without mortar. 

Dry Laid Stone Construction which fails is most likely due to improper building. Not following the key building rules will add to accelerated failure. 

• Covering joints

• Length into the wall

• Pack the wall from the inside

• Lay stones level

 *Reference : DRY STONE WALLING - a practical handbook.

Masterclass - Through Stones by Sean Adcock

Reproduced by kind permission of the author Sean Adcock - member@stonewaller.freeserve.co.uk

MC Through Stones Summer 07