Do a search for stone walls. Last month someone displayed what he had done learning from the 'net, dry not mortared, and I told him he could take up that trade, it is becoming a lost art, if he ever lost his job. If you have the time and patience to do it yourself go for it, which is what I might do when I sell my house and build elsewhere. His was more then 2 feet high and 50 feet long. It was amazing.

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

My understanding is the height is a big factor. Yours sounds like it won't be too tall to require an engineer. Do your homework first there is alot on the web and in books. I think it is do-able. Good for you.

Freeze/thaw is the problem. The wall will move with the freezing and thawing as the ground (or moisture in it) expands and contracts. Mortar is not flexible and will break unless the wall is on a SOLID footing that is not influenced by freeze/thaw - that goes down to the frost line which is pretty deep in ND (48" here in Cape Cod z6). After the mortar breaks the continued movement makes the wall fall apart over time because the pieces do not go back together the same way they were before - dry walls don't have as much contact points to snag on, so they tend to settle back close to where they were. It is kind of like a ratchet effect.

Unless you really want to go the extra mile on the footing, I'd suggest that you don't mortar it.

I also would not project the exceptional results that one DIYer had building a wall onto any person who decides that he can build a wall any more than I would conclude my neighbors eight year old can play perfectly in a symphony after seeing another 8 year old had done it. These are exceptions to the abilities of the rest of us. Maybe the kid can do it, but more than likely it won't have the best results.

The other thing is to consider the outcome if you do it yourself and fail. What is the worst that could happen, and are you willing to accept that outcome? If the wall has no retaining function, the worst that could happen is that it looks bad or that it succumbs to frost heave. If rocks fall out, do they pose a danger to anyone, or would there simply be a question of repairs?

If the wall has a serious retaining function and/or the wall is at the top of a steep hill above an elementary school playground, you might have more hesitation than if the wall performs a fencing function on flat ground.

To piggy back on Laag's advantages of dry-laid, in the event that you do want to change or redo something later, you don't have to be working with rocks that have mortar stuck to them.

But I think either is do-able if you study up. There are some excellent books out there.

KarinL

Masonry is not just knowledge, it is also a skill. Some are more able to develop that skill than others. Others can get a job with a mason and work hard to try to develop the skill and just not be able to do it.

Every kid wants to be a pro sports player, but many can barely get through gym class. I think masonry is much like a sport. You need to have some knowledge of the game or a good coach, you need some physical abilities, you need a certain amount of intuitive ability, and you might have an unusual natural ability.

Try a small project first to see where you are.

This is the link I referred to

http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/design/msg0421382226567.html?20

Here is a link that might be useful: Propagating Perennials

I'm going to look into it further. I have already done some research into it and I just don't see how technically it would be too difficult. The wall shouln't be much more than 18 inches high and will be holding back the ground behind it because of the slope. However, it isn't that much of a slope. I was just a bit taken back because this lanscape designer just flat out told me not to do this myself. So I began to think that maybe there is a lot more to it than I was expecting (which usually is the case).

Is there any books or articles that anyone would recommend? To be honest, there isn't a lot of good material on the internet. Most of the information is on how to build a dry stone wall.

You might want to look into slipform construction, if you're dead set against dry stacking.

Kristin

If it were easy, everyone would do it and it would not cost much to have it done.

Think about it. You can't get a cheaper product than on-site stone and tools required for this work cost less than mowing equipment.

There is a reason why modular block walls are widely used and it is not because people think they look better. They are easier to instal and they have stability by design. That means more DIYers can do them and more contractors can do them as well. There is a higher percentage of the expense on the product compared to stone masonry,yet the price is generally half of what a sonewall is.

It is much easier to build walls out of flat stone than round stone simply because they fit and interlock better. Blocky stones are easier than round ones as well. Fieldstone tends to be round which makes it the hardest of the bunch.

If you look at the link to the DIY wall that was linked earlier in this thread, you will see that that the stone in the walls is a mix of flat and blocky. It is also exceptionally good DIY work.

Fieldstone will be much more difficult to work with, even for Bryce (the guy in the other thread). It is more like stacking various sized balls where flat stone or blocky stone is like stacking books. It is much easier to do and more stable when it is done.

You might notice that some of the pictures of nearly complete walls in that thread show a large number of rounder stones that appear to be waste from the pallets. These are not as round as the fieldstone that I am accoustomed to, but still appear to have been culled out. Evaluate your stone carefully to see if you can work with it.

I don't think the people who tried to turn you away from this project thought that you were inadequate, but that they are more familiar with the understanding that this is a very difficult project without a developed skill set.

You might be able to do a great job, but most people would not be able to.

Call me a believer; I suspect fly2cast could do it. I think there is a self-selection process at work here, where there are only some people whose mind it would even cross to do this themselves, and the idea tends to occur to them only because they have the capacity to figure out how to do it.

I do wonder if you need to think about why you are sure you want the wall mortared. I'd keep an open mind on that. You could always make a test section without mortar and see if you think you really need it.

I have two fairly good stone books in the house (and a couple not good enough to mention). One of the good is David Reed's "The Art and Craft of Stonescaping" and the other Charles McRaven's "Stonework: Techniques and Projects." Neither deals with mortar, nor with fieldstone to any significant extent. McRaven's chapter on walls includes some good information on buttressing (which I don't think you'll need at the height you have), while Reed's has some pictures and discussion of old Irish walls that ... well, to a rock person, the pictures are like water on a hot day, and the info on how they were built is also interesting, but those walls would be less relevant to you.

From both books you do get the idea of communing with rock, so to speak, and I think that may be why you don't find a lot of info on working with fieldstone. Relative to wallstone, working with fieldstone must be much more a case of "reading" the rocks, assessing where their natural "faces" are and understanding how their weight will make them behave and settle, and ultimately "marrying" the rocks to each other. At least, that's how I'm finding my current work with boulders in the front yard, relative to work we've done with wallstone in the back yard. Wallstone is much more a simple case of puzzle building. Something that you're going to feel your way into is much harder to explain in a book. But check your local libraries and maybe the nearest landscape supply/stoneyard bookrack... that's where I found these.

I do suspect that books, rather than the internet, will be your best source. I mean, stone = ancient material = luddite = print materials, you know?

And again, the worst that could happen sounds like you get into it, find your results unsatisfactory, and go on to hire someone instead. That sounds better than spending the rest of your life wondering if you could have done it.

So much depends on the rock that you have, again to echo Laag.

KarinL

It is a specialty. Here in NH there are sometimes demonstrations of people building arches and stuff on site at fairs with fieldstone and no mortor. I think the self selection part is true. Once you start, you may change your mind or you may enjoy it and continue on. Why don't you build 10 feet and let it go through the winter and see if you still like it next spring?

DH built our own dry stone wall with no prior experience and it is holding up great.

Why Mortar and not dry laid? You do not answer that.

Laag says it all. I thought I wanted mortar, but after I did a lot of research and looked around a lot I realized dry laid was the way to go. You THINK it will hold up better if it's mortared, but actually DRY holds up better in the freeze thaw cycles we have. Mortar doesn't have flexibility and cracks. A dry laid wall will shift and settle back in place. After seeing a few old mortared walls that hadn't held up over the years, but seeing many drystone that had, I opted for the dry laid, and we are very happy with the way it looks and is holding up.

{{gwi:32631}}

I live on a hillside property with an abundance of old stone walls. Anytime we do any kind of work a retaining wall is necessary. My husband (who is a contractor and can pretty much tackle any home improvement project) has built all of the stone walls on our property by himself. He has purchased a lot of books on the subject (Charles McRaven has great books)and does a great job. However, it is NOT an easy task. It is very time consuming to do it correctly.

If you price out stone work from a mason it is very expensive and if you try to do it yourself (especially with stone from your property) you will see why it is so expensive.
My advice is do A LOT of reading so that your work in not in vain and to make it easier buy cut stone that is more uniform in shape.
From experience, using native fieldstone takes a lot of fitting, placing, and shaping which mean a lot of time.

I don't doubt that you can do it....but it is not as easy as it looks...:)

Sorry for not taking some time to reply to my own thread. It had sat idle for awhile so I thought it was dead.

Anyway, to answer a few questions... The reason I would like a mortared wall rather than a dry stacked wall is that I like the look better and goes with the neighborhood. I live in an old section of town (early 1900's) and most of the older homes have the mortared stone walls. Also, it is easier to mow the grass around a mortared wall. With that being said, I still may just buy the concrete wall blocks just to make things easier. I'm just looking into all options.

I built a couple of stone walls using round fieldstones. As Laag said, they're probably the hardest to build with, but that's what I was able to get cheap and I like how they look. Since these are the only walls I've ever built, I only suspect more squarish stone is easier since that's what I wished I had during the whole process. I spent a lot of time picking through farmers' rock piles looking for stones with flat fronts, tops and bottoms. The rocks on the bottom only needed flat fronts and tops. Of course, the fronts didn't really need to be flat, but that made a more finished look in my opinion. I took most of the summer to build each of the bigger walls I have. I just worked on it when I felt like it, and about half the time was spent driving to farms and sorting through rock piles. The other half was spent fitting rocks together, taking them back apart and trying again until I got it the way I wanted it. I found that starting in the middle and working in two directions worked well because I had two places to get my rocks to fit rather than just one.

I'll just leave a link to my site with lots of garden pictures. The first walls I built are on either side of my driveway around the culverts. I used smaller rocks there. My second wall is on the west side of my house and is an improvement over the ditch walls because the rocks are bigger. I like the steps the best in that project. The last wall I did was in the back of my house. It has the largest rocks with the flatest fronts and it's the wall I'm most proud of. I improve a little with each wall I make.

Here is a link that might be useful: Garden Pictures, Including Lots of Rocks