Stone Walls · Woburn, MA
Stone Wall Construction in Woburn, MAFieldstone and Granite Walls Built to Stand Through Frost
New fieldstone and granite walls, stone retaining walls and careful rebuilds of old New England walls, set on a base that drains.
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The short answer
Stone Walls in Woburn, MA
Stone Walls
Stone walls are part of the New England landscape. Old fieldstone walls still line yards and woods all over Massachusetts, and a well-built new one can make a property look settled and permanent in a way nothing else does. The catch is that a stone wall looks simple and is not. The stones on top are the easy part.
What keeps a wall standing is the base and the way the stones are laid. We dig out topsoil, build a compacted gravel footing, set the biggest stones low and lay each course so joints overlap and weight is carried down through the wall, not out toward the lawn. Retaining walls also get drainage behind them so water has somewhere to go besides pushing on the stone.
We build dry-laid walls, where the stones hold by weight and fit, and mortared walls for a more formal look or where the design calls for it. For old walls that have bulged, tipped or tumbled, we can take down the failed section, reset the base and rebuild it using the original stone wherever possible.
What is included
Stone Walls, start to finish
Fieldstone walls
Classic New England fieldstone walls along property lines, gardens and driveways, dry-laid or mortared.
Granite walls and steps
Granite block and split-face walls, plus stone steps that tie a wall into the slope of the yard.
Stone retaining walls
Walls that hold back soil on sloped lots, built with a proper base, drainage stone and a pipe to carry water away.
Repair and rebuild of old walls
Resetting bulging or collapsed sections of old walls, reusing the original stone so the repair blends in.
Wall caps and finishing
Flat capstones and clean, finished ends where the wall meets a driveway, walkway or gate opening.
Built for New England homes
Most old stone walls in Massachusetts were built by farmers stacking stones cleared from their fields, often right on the soil with no base at all. After generations of frost heave, the ground freezing, lifting and settling every winter, many have bulged, leaned or fallen in sections. A new wall that skips the gravel base will do the same thing in a few winters. We build the base first so the wall moves as little as possible.
Water is the other enemy. Spring snowmelt and heavy rain saturate the soil behind retaining walls on sloped lots, and a wall that cannot drain gets pushed out over time. We use clean drainage stone and pipe behind retaining walls so water flows out instead of building pressure, which matters on the many sloped yards around Woburn and nearby towns.
How it works
Our stone walls process
Site visit and free estimate
We walk the wall line or the old wall with you, look at the slope, soil and drainage, talk through stone type and style, and give you a written estimate.
Excavation and base
We dig below the topsoil, lay and compact a gravel base, and add drainage stone and pipe where a retaining wall or wet ground needs it.
Build the wall
Stones are sorted and set course by course, large stones low, joints crossed and the face battered back slightly for strength.
Cap, backfill and cleanup
Capstones go on, soil is backfilled and graded, the site is cleaned up, and we walk the finished wall with you.
Stone Walls: common questions
Free estimate
Tell us about the project. We will take it from there.
Send a few details and Nathan will get back to you to talk it through and set up a free, written estimate.