At this home in Concord, MA we are renovating the back yard by flattening the grade with fieldstone retaining walls. The plan is to wrap the area with the walls to raise the grade to level, and in the corner extend the walls up further to create a sitting wall. In a somewhat unique fashion the walls will be capped with granite curbing to give it a clean finish and sturdy top to step or sit on.
Building the Walls
To prep the walls we dig out a trench and lay compacted crushed stone as a base. We then bring local fieldstone from our private supplier and stack the wall. The wall is dry-laid without any mortar. Crushed stone and rip-rap goes behind the face stones, and behind that there is a layer of fabric to separate the stone from the dirt behind. This creates a natural looking, well drained, and long lasting wall.
Once the wall is up to height we cap it with granite curbing. This granite is 4″ thick x 18″ wide x 4′ long. The wide, heavy stones make for a sturdy, flat top, and give the wall a unique appearance. In the far corner we build the wall up above grade another ~2′ to create a closed in area and sitting wall.
In the end the customer now has flat useable area with attractive stone walls to sit and enjoy their view of the river.
