Building Stone Walls - Getting Stone

Schist, like that at Bolton, CT, is perfect for building walls..

The worst thing to do is to go to a garden/supply store and buy pallets of old fieldstone. First, they are expensive, at least several hundred dollars per ton. These are either strip-mined from old farmsteads, usually by the owner of the property preparing for housing development, or are stolen. A recent increase in stone “rusting,” (night-time thievery) helps feed the illicit side of the stone trade.

The best thing to do is to purchase fresh stone from an active quarry. Be careful about getting fresh stone, because some quarries are “yards” where strip-mined stone is gathered, sorted and sold. Many New England towns have active rock quarries producing slabs that are perfect for construction. The price is somewhat lower because the supply exceeds the demand. I provide Goshen Stone under Selected Links as an example.

Excavation in either bedrock terrains or glacial soils produces materials that can be used to build a stone wall. The Big Dig in Boston, for example, produced boulders that were later used for walls. Bedrock excavation produces angular blocks that are often used for walls. To obtain this material, go to the yellow pages (or search the internet) for

Though this is more work, it is quite satisfying for the homeowner who wants to work with his or her own land. Lands being cleared of trees often produce a litter of stone that can be collected. Slabs can be plucked from the surface soil. Large boulders can be gubbed up from the ground, often with heavy equipment.

Natural: Many properties have natural concentrations of stone that can be harvested for their stone without compromising the historic archaeology of old walls

Piles: The early phase of managing waste stone on farms often produced stone piles here and there. Of course, these are artifacts of the past and should be left alone, if possible. However, under most circuit’s probably better to remove a whole pile and turn it into a segment of a wall, than to take an old segment of wall and move it somewhere else.

Old Walls: Whenever possible, old walls should be left in place, especially in the vicinity of old foundations and cellar holes and along roads (abandoned or being used). If you must take stone from an old wall (and this is your choice as a landowner), then leave the corners, ends, special structures, barways and gates intact. Always take a mixture of damaged and undamaged sections, so as to preserve the range of present conditions. A good rule of thumb is to look at the wall and ask yourself what sections, if left, would preserve the present range of variation. Finally, take stone from as few places as possible.