This fieldstone wall in Westford, MA was damaged after being struck by a fast moving vehicle.  The car careened off of the first wall, narrowly missed the house, and then struck another stone wall further down the property.  Fortunately the driver was able to walk away from the incident.

The homeowner found our website and hired us to rebuild the damaged portions of the dry laid stone wall.  It was also a convenient time to tidy up some of the other portions of the walls that had deteriorated over time.

One of the advantages of a dry laid stone wall such as this is that when damage does occur, be it from a vehicle or snow plow or just ground movement and frost heaving over the years, the repairs are fairly inexpensive.  The stones can be easily dismantled and then re-used in the same style.  Often it is hardly apparent that any repairs took place at all.  Had this wall been laid with mortar, the repairs would have been much more extensive.

The larger wall above and to the right is of a rougher style – often how you see old farm walls. Farmers would pull stones out of the field and quickly and roughly stack them at the property line.  Emulating the same style and method, we were able to tidy up this wall and re-stack the stones that had come off.  Without bringing in machinery and tearing it all out and rebuilding a higher finish wall – were were able to clean up this stone wall by hand in short time.

The other wall being of a higher finish took a bit more care.  For this we first dismantled the damaged portion and then rebuilt.  The fieldstones were laid in the same style, making an effort to re-use aged/lichen covered stones on the surface in order to maintain the aesthetic of this old New England stone wall.

The result came out well and to the untrained eye it is hardly noticeable that any repairs took place at all.

With a days work, we at Concord Stoneworks were able to make big improvements while preserving the traditional aesthetic of these New England fieldstone walls.