Hello nancycarolyn,

I am currently building a 90' X 4' high wall, I have read a book written by John Vivian called "Building Stone Walls". It is quite informative and if you are going to be building a 10' high wall, you better read the part on how wide a base should be for a wall that tall. I have set the base of my 4' high wall wall near 3'wide. Anyway there is a lot of good things in the book "So I think", and there is a great satisfaction when you see it actually coming together.

Hope this helps.

Early Riser

http://doityourself.com/brick/buildingstonewall-e2gar0166.htm

http://www.homestore.com/HomeGarden/HomeImprovement/HowTos/HowTos/CRHO_BuildingDryStackedStonewall.asp?poehomestore

Do you have flatish rocks to work with? If you put big flat rocks on the top your wall will double as furniture. With that small a wall you can easily rebuild it a couple of times until it's perfect.

With a wall that short (10 inches, not feet) and narrow, you can pretty much wing it. Any flat stackable stone will work. Just put the big stuff on the bottom, and the prettiest stuff on the top.

The stones in the wall should drain toward the slope, and the face of the wall itself should slightly "lean" towards the slope. If you held a ruler straight up, the top would be about an inch closer to the slope than the bottom.

Thanks for the pointers and instructions. I am using flat stones, shale. I'll let you guys know how it turns out. Good luck, Early Riser with that long wall. Post photos when it's done. It should be beautiful.

Sorry about the inches (") to feet (') problem... It should not be to hard... I will post a few pics of my wall some time soon..

ER

I built my little stone wall today out of Tennessee limestone. It is so pretty, and thanks to your suggestions, so much easier than I thought. Just a tiny wall tucked into the side of a gentle slope. I planted wild ginger and cyclmen above it and a clump of iris cristata in front of it. Thank you so much for all your help. My muscles are aching enough tonight that I think this will be my one and only wall, but I'm so glad I did it.

Nancy -
PICTURES!!!!

Check out the web site below on building a roman stacked wall.

Here is a link that might be useful: Roman Style Stacked Wall

kenbrook:

Thanks for the great link! This is exactly what we want to do in our front yard. Don't know if I can lay my hands on "Vengeance Creek Stacking Stone" in Oregon though. Any suggestions on other varieties that could be used?

Thanks.

Greg M.

I have alot of river stone on site, so have built dry stone walls extensively on the hill for terracing. I have found that by using smaller stones at the base and then graduating up to the largest stones on top, that the walls are not only prettier, but are holding up to wash out much better. My first walls with the largest on bottom have not held together as well as the reverse. The larger stone on top anchors the smaller ones on the bottom.

help please-is there some tool called a mortar bag or ? that makes mortaring odd shaped and vartious stone in my long but short wall quicker and easier? the wall is apx. 20" by 23'. this is the second section- the first was much shorter (about 6') and went together slowly but easier. any help or suggestions are much appreciated.

Here is a picture of a stone wall we recently finished. We have a sloping back yard, so I have done this in a few different places to build up my beds and also to keep the mulch from washing.

{{gwi:288049}}

Marylaine,
Hadn't heard of this but here it is...i think I need one, too. Kinda like a heavy-duty cake decorator.

Here is a link that might be useful: Mortar Bag

Sandy, did you use anything between or around your stones? Or did you just stack them? Looks great. Jeanette

A little late, but if you follow the " Stack One rock on Two" rule everything else should take care of itself.