Cost of Stone Wall (houses, costs, rock wall, architect)
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Wanted to build a stone wall in the front of my house. Like the look of the walls that have the stones long/flat and are cemented together as opposed to true round stones without any cement.
Wondering how must it costs to try to do it yourself vs. hiring a masonry company to come out and do it. Since I have no clue I am leaning towards hiring someone but wanted to get some opinions before calling up for an estimate.
Around here most of that stone is limestone that comes from the bottoms of fast moving streams. There are tons of these type fences in the hill country of Texas that date back to the original settlers from germany since it was so easily avilable, It is very common in UK and european country side too. Your best bet is to get a hold of a stone company.Its not really cheap and takes somone know what they are doing since soil is different all arouind the country. In high clay areas you might need to make a cement foundation before placement.Good luck
Going rate in a very rocky Maine (ample local supply) is 100 dollars a linear foot for a standard rockwall, with rock foundation, 3 feet high, 3 feet at the base and 2 feet at the top using round stones.
I build rockwalls myself for the cost of diesel fuel for my tractor. To me it is fun and I have built probably 1000 feet of rocks walls over the 15 years I have been doing it. There is nothing to it, just be forewarned building rock walls is worse then heroine...addictive!
Most stone walls today are a facade. The actual wall is behind the stone veneer.
BT is referring to real stone walls. There is either a poured wall or block wall sitting on a footing (that is engineered to the specific hgt). Then the stone is done on the face. Along with the wall is a drainage system with several outlets. The drainage tile behind the wall will be covered with a mesh material and gravel to prevent silt from blocking the system. Sometimes damp-proofing the back of the wall is advisable.
The underlying question is- How long? And how high? And will the wall have a direct impact on drainage?
Thanks for all the info! I was hoping to put it on my front lawn near the street - just moved into the house and it has a nice big front lawn with basically nothing on it between the house/street (200 feet between). A lot of the houses around me have a stone wall with some trees/bushes behind it and I like that look (also open to other landscaping ideas). Thinking 2-3 feet high and would be about 40-50 ft long. Shouldn't have a direct impact on drainage.
Thanks for all the info! I was hoping to put it on my front lawn near the street - just moved into the house and it has a nice big front lawn with basically nothing on it between the house/street (200 feet between). A lot of the houses around me have a stone wall with some trees/bushes behind it and I like that look (also open to other landscaping ideas). Thinking 2-3 feet high and would be about 40-50 ft long. Shouldn't have a direct impact on drainage.
You could buy the rock and do it yourself. I am a farmer so it certainly does not take any brains
Seriously, even if you just bought your rocks and you were in recently healthy shape, you could build a respectable 40 foot rockwall in no time. I think I run about 5-10 feet per hour, but I'm also getting rock for myself and the walls are not always perfect. If you had the rock delivered on-site, and you were trying for perfection, you could probably come close to the lower side of that...5 feet per hour. At the latest a few weekends and you would have it...and the pride of saying I built it myself.
I built this rockwall in a day, and while its not 40 feet in length it was exceptionally thick due to it being a retaining wall sort of arrangement. (Its my front patio but only half built at this point).
One trick I often use to give me that looks-like-it-has-been-here-for-a-hundred-years look is applying yogurt to some of the exposed rocks. In less than a week moss will begin to grow where the yougurt was smeared.
Another trick I found is that a rockwall does not have to be the standard 3-3-2 size to look good. Often times a smaller 2 foot high rock wall gives you that look you are after with out 1/3 the work/cost.
Whatever method you use, be sure to string it out. Even if the ground under the rockwall is less than flat, having the top of the wall in a perfectly straight line makes the wall look really sharp.
Naw a stone wall is a stone wall, looks proper to me.
First you got to read some Robert Frost, something like the Mending Wall. What you goin' do when the rabbits git in there and the yelping dogs go after them? All them Townies start throwing your rocks about.
But like K'Ledgebldr sezs most modern walls are jist rock front concrete things anyway. It is actually is best to build the sucker yourself out of rubble rocks. Just remember you actually move about 7 tons of rocks for each ton placed in the wall and you never have exactly the sizes you need close enough or on hand at the moment. Fun stuff and you don't to go to no gym that day. I built a super nice one out all the stones folks had thrown off neighboring gardens in my last old shack. Cost maybe $100 for like 26 footer waist high. Put the fancy poured cap on that sucker too. Had the garden behind it.
Then it gits more fun when you have to come up with a way to keep them damn kids and dogs from gitting up there and running along the top. I still like them busted bottles and bits of barbed wire embedded in the top. Don't stop them but does slow them down a bit.
Lot more things to consider than what does it cost. In today's anal World they will make you put up a chain link fence to guard the 3 foot drop off your new wall.
Your actual cost, maybe like a range of $100 - $5,00,0000 depending how and what is done. Just ball parking it with the info given. But first you got to read some Robert Frost and then see what the local building dept sezs, yep them codes again. Can't have the groundhogs and rabbits getting trapped by illegal rocks. Good olde Robert never did get any hobo's to help on them walls, think they might have only done wood piles.
Knowing how the modern World works, you will get the dude out of the Yellow Pages and the rocks will come from Egypt or some place close. Such is the modern life. Who really knows what that might cost after all the paper work is done, you get a permit, survey the entire hood, get it inspected at least 10 times.
Not really...a wall like that where I live (very rural Maine) would look as silly as one of my rockwalls in a suburb. One must match a formal or informal rockwall with the surroundings in which it is going. The rockwalls I build perfectly match the other 40 miles of rockwalls my ancestors made back in 1830-1850.
Now NewHB79 ask Tony&Clarie89 how much the those rockwall cost per linear foot and you probably will want to stick to mowing the yard for now.
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Cost of Stone Wall
