Round Hill Road, Frederick VS Arch Project Story, 2013

The start of a beautiful day and a new green pallet to build on.  An 80 ft long x 1 ft high wall, 4 bench's, 6 vertical stones, 3 ft high x 9.5 ft long wall with 30" l x 19" h arch. Stone used on this project was a mix of PA Blue/lilac, Butler stone,  Glenville PA, and Western Maryland. Time to build 30 days. 

The plan sketched by the client. I added some of the titles just in order to explain some of the sections in the pictures below. Such as the snake or candy cane. 

VS Copyright 2013

This section about is the candy cane, the larger stones sticking up illustrate quartz stones from the property to be placed into the wall. 

Excavating the top sod off to earth for the setting foundations stone. Candy cane section.

Staging of all matterail. Brought in all the big boys - mini excavator to dig, skid loader to move stone around and remove a pile of dirt.

Little mantis tiller gets down and dirty. This helps me loosen up the dirt making it quicker to hand dig out. Great when you have a lot of small rocks in the way. 

Set string lines begin my foundation stones set on earth 3-4 inches below grade. 

Just about finished candy cane section.

In this image I'm using the folding 3-4-5 A square set on the string line to help me set my lines for the box stone foundation for the arch. 

Related Blog:

Tool - 3' x 4' x 5' / 90° Folding Layout A Square

Begin to build the platform for the arch to sit one. 

A large stone is set in the middle of where the arch will be built to help guide your eye threw the space and back to the vertical quartz. All of the foundation is built at this point. 

Top of the platform 12" high at front. I'm now setting large flat cap stones to finish this section off.

Just about finished platform.

I begin to build up wall section called snake. 

Since the wall goes up hill I continue to set my stones level. I set my cribbing for the arch to just get an idea of placement on the platform.

Cribbing for arch set center on top of large stone. This will be the front side of the arch.

Setting bench at end of snake with Toro Dingo.

Related Blog:

Equipment - "Dingo" Walk behind Mini Skid Steer

Stone bench built center in front of arch to be.

Wall frames up for 3' h x 9'.5" l wall with arch. The start of the build with PA Lilac stone. In the back at the end of the snake wall you can see the bench set with the dingo.

Side - back view of arch.

Back side of arch. This section will be filled with dirt to the top of platform in back.

Shang shí dŭ yuè Stone Project.  Built in 2011 this section of wall sits directly in front of the new arch wall project. 

Front of finished Arch with Western Maryland Stone along with PA Lilac to build the wall.

Related Blog:

Starburst Arch, Round Hill Road, Frederick MD - Dry Laid Stone

 Side view. Great view of the flat caps on wall section.

Finishing up with cap stones on snake section to bench.

Snake section all finished along with filling dirt on back side of platform and snake wall section.

Now headed towards 3 vertical standing stones at entrance.

Cap stones now finished on this section.

Now building from 3 vertical stones back candy cane section placing quartz into wall build strategically centered in wall section. 

Placing cap stones and building wall section level stepped stones going up hill. Buckets hold my small stones called packing to be placed in the middle of wall. 

Related Blog: How To - Wall Stone Ingredients

Last day of walling in the rain. I just put the pedal down a pushed threw to make in the last day of walling. Finishing up the last of the cap stones on the candy cane section with the quartz. 

Notice my small wall frames. Some might find wall frames over kill for only a 1' high wall. I like to use  them for any size wall. They keeps me on track allowing ME to wall quicker.

Related Blog:

How - To Wall Frames

Last of the flat caps set on candy cane section. Weed cloth set behind arch for client to place small stones on top. I then placed dirt behind walls for additional plantings.  Straw was put down to help keep earth from washing out. Next it was time to clean up the site moving all the pallets of stone with Dingo. This was the first job I really use the dingo on. I really enjoyed the ability to be able to move stone around easily by my self. Also using a track machine kept me at 95% No Damage to the grass/soil. The biggest benefit was just how small this machine is making it easy to just locked up at the end of the day. 

Frederick is a bit of a stretch for me to drive. I had worked with this client back in 2011 building a wall around a beautiful flat rock that laid below the earth. When I was invited back I didn't hesitate to say YES. I really enjoyed his consideration to the space, use of colors, time of day or season of light. More importantly just how easy it was for me to understand his vision and work with him. 

How could I say NO?!  Well worth the 100 mile - 2 hours drive per day! 

Thank you VS for allowing to be apart of your creation.

Shang shí dŭ yuè Stone Project

Shang shí dŭ yuè  - "Rock upon which to gaze at the moon."

Frederick Maryland

 Before.

The customer contacted me to build a wall around the large stone in his yard. As I started to build the wall I asked him to please give me the name of the project. The name says it all. I could just sit or lay on this stone. A neighbor said how when her daughter was growing up. She would stand on their large stone and sing away. Just like it was here own stage. These large flat stones are all over this mountain area of Frederick. The have beautiful grey, blues, and silver colors. They are very light stones making them easy to move.

After the dig out I marked the area and set up string lines. Now you can start to see the large flat stone.

 Foundation bed dug out 3-4" down 24" wide.

Foundation stones placed level with grade (earth) Frames set up middle frame is the top of wall. The wall will be built level across full section. This was built as a protruding foundation. This means the wall will be set back from foundation stones 4". The frames are built out of 1"x4" wood with a 1:6 batter- for every 6 inchs up the wall will come in 1 inch.

Wall build started on right side. Large stone in wall had been placed as a step. I planned on having the wall built on top of it.

Later on the build I started on the left side building up the wall head. The reason for starting at the other end was to have every thing blend into the middle. If you build from one direction you will make your work go quick. But when you get to your other end you will need to come in. Other wise you will find it even harder to find the right size stones.

You will also notice the wall frames spaced out. I space the frames out to a distances which allow me to finish building in a day. The benefit I can see what I got done every day. I also set me string lines level and build to them. As you will notice the earth changes grade just about every where on this job site. Tricky building curves - I freestyle them keeping the frames close to the outer edges not to get in my way.

 Home owner has begun to place plants. All vertical stones place for different visual perspectives from multiple vantage points. More vertical stones and plants will be installed within the months to follow. The home owner has a beautiful touch for plants and natural landscapes. With insperations from New York Central park co designed by Frederich Law Olmsted. Along with Japanese garden design.

Finished Dry Laid Stone wall 34' long x 24" height (average) Butler stone, Red Sand Stone, PA Blue Stone and Historic Cockeysville Marble Stone. Double sided on both ends. Flat cap stones with one large blue local stone for seat. Two vertical stones one on right will be the entrance.

 Four stones act as steps to large stone. Two stones to right had been placed. The other lower two by large stone uncovered.

Wall head 18" height.

 Large local blue stone for seat.

You can not see the beauty of the large Shang shí dŭ yuè  - "Rock upon which to gaze at the moon."

Small wall head reworked after placing original red sand stone. This will be the entrance by walking along curved wall down four steps to Shang shí dŭ yuè Rock. Were you can now site on the large local blue stone to gaze at the moon. 

Project finish date 8/1/11

Thank you V.S. for the opportunity to work around your Shang shí dŭ yuè Rock