Stone Walls: Construction, Types, Designs, Uses, Advantages & Disadvantages

In this article, we will discuss the stone walls.

Stone walls are a type of masonry construction that has been utilized for thousands of years. The stone walls used to be constructed by farmers and primitive people by piling loose field stones into a dry stone wall.

Later, mortar and plaster were introduced, especially in the construction of city walls, castles, and other defenses before and during the time of the Middle Ages. These stone walls are placed throughout the world in various forms.

  1. Stone walls  

Stone walls are majorly made of locally available stones different from limestone and flint to granite and sandstone. However, the quality of building stone differs highly, both in its bearing to weathering, resistance to water permeability, and its capability to be worked into regular shapes before construction.

Worked stone is known as ashlar, and is usually utilized for corners in stone buildings. Granite is very withstanding to weathering, while a few limestones are very weak and can’t resist weathering. Such as Portland stones, are more weather resistant than other types of limestone.

  2. Construction of Stone Walls  

There are 6 steps for the construction of stone walls that are as follows:

✔ Prepare The Footing

✔ Lay The Base Course

✔ Build-Up the Wall

✔ Mark the Stone

✔ Cut the Stone

✔ Tool the Joints

a. Prepare the footing

Beneath the frost line, excavate a trench and prepare it 2 feet more comprehensive than the wall and place it with landscape fabric overlapped 12″ then provide a 6″ layer of ¾ inch stone and a plate compactor, pack it.

Until the footing is about 8″ beneath the grade, keep and pack more layers and drive two stakes removed by a distance equal to the width of the wall about a foot far off each end of the straight wall segment.

b. Lay the base course

With a mason’s line placed just up of grade, attach the stakes and keep the first stone at a corner, and position the succeeding stone against the first face of the line. When the first course is placed, repeat the same procedure on the opposite side and with smaller rocks fill between the two rows and with the tops of the face stones set flush & with a bed of mortar on top of this course.

c. Build-Up the Wall

Reposition the line higher up the stakes and from a corner begins the second course and see that the vertical joints are swaying, and the outside faces meet the line dry-fit each stone first. Layout a trowelful of mortar on the wall and a mallet tamps the stone into it, and seen edges of face stones should replace only on rock, not cannon.

d. Mark the Stone

To prepare a stone fit, you will have to mark and cut it and utilize a pencil to mark the segments of the stone you wish to detach, and for this cutting process, you will require to wear safety glasses, a 3-inch carbide, and a 3-pound hand sled.

e. Cut the Stone

Now keep the pencil-marked segment stone on the ground and place the chisel’s carbide tip on the pencil line and downward aim it slowly, then strike the chisel and reposition it and strike it again, and repeat again and again until the stone is adjusted accurately.

f. Tool the Joints

Between the capstones with a brick jointer, trowel the joints, and channel away water to prepare them little concave. Then, use a concrete wedge along the base course, front, and back to place the wall from shifting. To make each wedge 6″ high and 12″ wide, utilize a brick trowel and, with backfill, cover them.

  3. Types of Stone Walls  

There are the following types of stone walls that are as follows:

a. Field Stone Wall

b. Pennsylvania Field Stone Wall

c. Colonial Stone Wall

d. Split Face / Mosiac Wall

e. Veneer Wall

f. Modular Block Wall

g. Mortared Walls

h. Dumped Walls

i. Tossed Walls

a. Field Stone Wall

Fieldstone is gathered from the field or ground, and they are majorly more rounded and have been tumbled in the environment for centuries. As a result, fieldstone is low costlier than the other types of wall stone.

When field stone gets placed into more consistent batches of size, color, and shape, the price will go increasing up.

Any stone wall fieldstone is best, and fieldstone walls can be laid both dries laid or with mortar. For big-scale walls, they are well placed.

b. Pennsylvania Field Stone Wall

These stones are flat in shape and a type of fieldstone similar to our local supply yards, and it will cost high per ton than the normal fieldstone.

Pennsylvania fieldstone wall is placed in mortar to add the small stones from getting knocked out.

c. Colonial Stone Wall

This wall is also flat in shape, and this stone arrives from the bluestone quarries and is prepared from cast-off pieces. Colonial stone faces are very flat in shape, and with a chisel and hammer as a softer stone, it is effortless to work.

These stones can be utilized to prepare a very tight-fitting, clean, and consistent finish, and it has a dry-laid aspect.

d. Split / Mosiac Wall

Split face walls are freshly broken fieldstone, and to face the wall, the stone has one very flat size that is utilized, and the wall should be mortared together, and the mortar is possession the form and not the weight of the stone. It is uncomplicated to get a clean, flat finish by utilizing split face stone and mortar.

e. Veneer Wall

A veneer wall consists of a wall in which the face stones stick to a structural concrete base, and these walls are utilized in houses and foundations. To get a clean finish, veneer stones are effortless to cut and piece together.

f. Modular Block Wall

To prepare masonry walls, concrete wall blocks are a precast product, and these blocks arrive in a various variety of styles with non-identical engineering systems and requirements.

They are dry laid systems and can be built much faster, and concrete block walls can look excellent and practical, and more cost-effective.

g. Mortared Walls

As the name of this wall denotes, in this wall the stone and mortar are used for the preparation of a wall that can be used for bordering the boundary.

h. Dumped Walls

Dumped walls are prepared up of piled stones. They usually look like stones that are “dumped” into piles.

By most measurements, the breadth of the wall has to be, at maximum, a fourth of its length. If the pile is any small in proportion, it isn’t taken as a wall by most standards.

i. Tossed Walls

Tossed walls are the same as dumped walls but they have some differences in their construction. While they may look the same, tossed walls aren’t just piled stones at an almost random rate.

Instead, tossed walls are prepared by roughly but purposely stacking stones in such a way that they are strong and provide some aesthetic beauty to the design as well.

  4. Interior Stone Walls Ideas  

Here are some interior stone walls ideas that can be implemented on your walls: 

1. Small Wall Big Impact on Kitchen Design

2. Your Own Stone Walled Bathhouse

3. Natural Granite and Stone Brick Island

4. Floor to Ceiling Fireplace Surround

5. Interior Stone Wall Ideas for Nooks

6. Mixed Stone and Stacked Wood Cabin Concept

7. Rustic Exposed Beam and Quarry Stone Bedroom

8. Modern Design Meets Natural Beauty

9. Old World Spa Style Bathtub Surround

10. An Elegant Frame for an Exceptional Mirror

11. Create Major Drama with a Spiral Staircase

12. Design Your Own Grand Hall

13. Mixed Stone, Metal, and Wood

14. Textural Sandstone Living Room Design

  5. Exterior Stone Walls Ideas  

1. Edged Path Retaining Wall

2. Garden Patio Ratio

3. Outdoor Kitchen Wall

4. Rock Walls Patio Seating

5. Rock Fountain in Stone Boundary Wall

6. Stairway with ornate Retaining wall

7. Landscape Retaining Wall

8. Mosaic Retaining Wall

  6. Materials for Stone Wall  

The materials needed for stone walls are as follows: 

✔ Stone

✔ Cement

✔ Sand

✔  Water

✔  Surkhi

  7. Tools for Stone Wall Preparation  

The tools required for stone wall preparation are as follows:

✔ Angle grinder

✔ Bush hammer

✔ Ceramic tile cutter

✔ Chisel

✔ Diamond blade

✔ Lewis (lifting appliance)

✔ Non-explosive demolition agents

✔ Plug and feather

✔ Stonemason’s hammer

✔ Straight edgeTrowel

  8. Uses of Stone Wall  

The uses of stone walls are as follows: 

✔ It is used for decoration purposes

✔ It is used as a boundary wall.

✔ It is used for providing a natural appearance to the wall.

✔ It is used to prepare eco-friendly walls.

  9. Dry Stone Wall Vs Mortared Stone Wall  

  10. Advantages of Stone Wall  

The advantages of stone walls are as follows:

✔ It provides a natural look and feel.

✔ This wall can raise the value of the property.

✔ These walls provide a beautiful backyard patio.

✔ The stone wall cladding is very effortless to hold.

✔ The stone wall insulates property from weather extremities.

✔ The stone walls are attractive. Good thermal regulation.

✔ The stone wall is durable and robust.

✔ It is Natural and Eco-friendly.

  11. Disadvantages of Stonewall  

The disadvantages of stone walls are as follows:

✔ It needs a structured substrate which results in extra cost.

✔ The stone wall has poor insulation.

✔ The method of building is hard for the stone wall.

✔ For protection needs to be sealed.