DIY Life

At last, the fifth of the five articles I promised! I have previously written about walls of natural stone, engineered wall blocks, cultured stone, and pressure-treated timbers.

Mortared stone is technically not the most difficult, but it is the most labor intensive; essentially you're taking big rocks and making them into little ones. Done correctly, mortared stone is, in my mind, the nicest looking work you will ever see. I think that you'll agree when you see some of the gallery photos.

That said, take a gander at the gallery and we'll move on to the fun stuff.

Gallery: Mortared rock walls: a how-to

For the sake of this article, I will limit the scope of the work to a free-standing wall about 2' tall and 10' long. Bigger walls than that, or those cutting into a slope, really require something more than DIY experience, and you might want to get a price from a contractor.

First off, safety. On the possibility that you'll be building a wall somewhere in the vicinity of the power or gas lines, make sure you get your utilities marked. My experience is that the power and natural gas guys generally put their lines down fairly deep, but not so with the telephone, cable, and water folks. In any case, if you cut any of the utility lines, you will have, at the minimum, angry family members or neighbors on your hands. If you cut off service to your entire area, you will then be in BTT (big time trouble). Don't take a chance; it only takes a phone call. For this project, you will need hand and eye protection and maybe some knee pads, unless you have very young knees.

The layup of the stone is pretty much confined to two principal dimensions. You can install the stone horizontally (stacked) or with the long axis vertically (veneer). Look again at the gallery to get some sense of the appearance; veneer has the advantage (for the same square footage) of requiring requires less material and less labor.

Gallery: Mortared rock walls: a how-to

The materials:

• The rock, of course -- You should have some notion of the kind you want, but I recommend that you not actually buy it until you have either a very good idea of the scope of your project or the base of the wall already constructed. It's much easier to measure the base construction and then purchase the stone, so you don't have to sheepishly return to the rock yard and get six or seven additional square feet of material in order to finish the work -- not that I have ever had to do anything like that. Check with your stone supplier, but for stack stone material you can expect to pay about $250 a ton with coverage of approximately 35 square feet per ton. For veneer stone, you will pay approximately the same amount and get about double the square foot coverage. These prices reflect the stone available in the Atlanta, Georgia area and are not necessarily representative of your neck of the woods. The big determinants of the cost will be the freight from the quarry nearest you. Measure the project and add 10-12% extra; remember you will be chipping the rock away, so the waste is fairly significant. In any case, you will probably have to buy the rock by the pallet, so be prepared. Have it delivered; don't mess around hauling the stuff in 14 trips to your home. Don't forget to include the cap rock for the top of the wall.

• The cinder block sub-structure -- block comes in several dimensions, but a very popular size is 8" x 8" x 16". You'll need about 9 blocks for each 10 square feet of wall; get enough block for your work plus 10%, of course. Blocks generally cost about $2 each.

• Masonry cement -- Your vendor will have the necessary masonry supplies. You will be looking for Type N, generally used for above-grade projects; it will run $8-9 a bag. I like to mix the mortar, fine sand, and portland cement in a 1:2:1/4 ratio, by volume. (In some locations you can find a "mason's mix" of all the required ingredients.) Check with your vendor, but you can generally expect coverage of 30-40 block and 25-35 square feet of stone. You'll use this for laying up the block (unless you pour the cavities -- see below) and sticking the rock to the wall.

• Concrete for the footer-- the footer is the solid concrete base upon which you will erect the cinder block wall. Get enough bagged "sakrete" (pre-mixed cement, sand, and gravel) to build a foundation a foot wider and longer than your project and below the frost line of your area. You'll pay $3-7 a bag, depending on the size and type; coverage is noted on the bag.

• Reinforcing bar ("rebar") -- in combination with the poured cavities, to strengthen the wall. I recommend that you get enough rebar to put in every third block, with the bottom 12" of the bar in the footer and the length to be as tall as the wall. In addition to the rebar, especially for walls under 2' in height, you can fill all the cavities with concrete and you have, essentially, a poured concrete wall. The advantage here is that you don't have to mortar the blocks together (a big plus for a DIY project) so you save substantial labor time.

Gallery: Mortared rock walls: a how-to

Time:

A wall 2' tall and 10' long (the scope of our discussion), from start to finish, will eat up a weekend. That said, if you can get help with the hard part of the job (which covers pretty much all of the job), that is to your benefit. The more, the merrier. There may be a trade-off, however, for the next time someone says "Honey, will you go look at curtains with me?" Think about it...

Tools:

• Shovels -- round-point and flat, for the excavation part of the work and mixing the concrete and mortar.

• A brick hammer -- to knock the stone into an acceptable shape.

• A 4' carpenter's level -- to keep the block wall horizontal.

• Mason's trowels -- for applying the mortar.

• Grout bag (optional) -- to get the grout into the joints; alternatively, you can use a small trowel, if the joints are large. For stacked stone, you should try to chip the rock neatly enough such that joints are not visible; no joints, no grout! What a deal.

• Wheelbarrow or just a piece of old plywood -- to mix the concrete and mortar.

• Brick ties -- generally used for brickwork, sometimes a mason will use these guys to stabilize the wall rock as it's put up.

Gallery: Mortared rock walls: a how-to

The process:

• Dig the foundation below your frost line, and about a foot wider and longer than the finished work. Pour your footer with the "sakrete" at least 12" deep, or more, depending on the frost line. It doesn't have to be perfectly level -- you can let gravity take care of that. If you are going to add rebar to the block wall, now is the time to insert the steel about a foot into the concrete, after eyeballing about where the cavities of the block will end up. Let the footer cure for about 24 hours, unless you used the rapid-hardening type of "sakrete", in which case you're good to go in about four hours.

• Lay the first row of blocks over the pieces of rebar, with the ends of the blocks as close as possible, and check that the tops are level. If not, you can shim the bottom of the blocks with flat stone chips. Lay up the succeeding rows of block, making sure that you don't line up all the block joints on top of one another. (This will, of course, ultimately cause the wall to fail and subject you to muffled laughter from family and friends alike.) As you lay up the block, you may mortar the joints together, or pour the cavities with the rebar, or pour all the cavities. As opposed to other walls, you don't have to batter or set the walls back; they go straight up. Again, let the wall cure from four to 24 hours, depending on your choice of concrete.

• Now the fun begins. With the rock hammer, chip a bunch of rock to shape. For stacked stone, the usual configuration is akin (your word of the day -- look it up) to a small loaf of bread. If you want to veneer the rock, knock the stone into pieces about the size of a piece of paper (legal or otherwise, your choice). You'll break a lot of rock to get the shapes you want, but don't be discouraged. This work is labor-intensive, but you'll be surprised how quickly you get the knack of it; press ahead.

• With an inventory of prepared rock at hand, apply the mortar mixture to the wall and the stone and then stick it on the wall, with a slight twisting motion, to squish the two layers of mortar together; hold it for a few seconds. For stacked rock, set the succeeding row on top of the one below it, making sure you alternate the joints, for the sake of a good look. For veneer, you can use stone chips (not to worry, you'll have an ample supply) to use as spacers for later grouting (there's a pic in the gallery).

• Alternate colors, sizes, and shapes as you move up the wall. HINT: When you get about halfway up the wall, start thinking about the rock that will be in the top half and cut them so they they aren't all little tiny pieces just below the caprock level, leading some of the bystanders to ask " how come all the rock at the top is about the size of a little tiny piece?" Plan ahead.

• OK, getting to the finish line. Hammer your caprocks into shape and mortar them to the top of the wall; if you filled all the cavities, this will be a snap, as you have a very flat surface to work on. It's only a little more effort if you filled only the cavities with the rebar. Make sure the caps are stable and don't rock and roll -- at some point someone will sit or walk on the wall and you don't want them (the peeps or the caps) to fall off and break.

• Grouting. Using the grout bag or a small trowel or your finger push the grout into the joints (after removing the spacer chips, as necessary). Let it dry a few minutes then smooth it with a damp rag. Avoid getting grout on the face of the rock; it's hard to remove when dry, as you might imagine.

Clean up the mess and wait for the adulation (yet another word of the day) to begin. You will be the envy of the neighborhood, oh yeah!

(Thanks to the good folks at Stone Forest Materials in Kennesaw, GA for the use of their displays for several of my photos.)

Gallery: Mortared rock walls: a how-to

I live north of Atlanta, Georgia, an area currently under homeowner outdoor watering restrictions. Not much is allowed because of a lingering drought. In addition to trying to do my part to conserve water, I want to be able to water my plants, without waiting for Mother Nature to send the rain. I liked Dan Chilton's article on rain barrels, but I wanted to do something a bit different. I built my barrel in about two hours and it's now the repository for all my recycled water and rainfall, such as it is.

Peruse the gallery, follow the construction steps, and you can be the proud owner of your very own rain barrel and, might I say, the envy of your neighbors.

Gallery: Rain barrels made easy

• Sharpen the blade.
• Change the oil; go with a synthetic and you'll only have to do it once a year.
• Clean or replace the air filter.
• Clean or replace the spark plug.
• Check for frayed or broken cables.
  

In the past there were only a few choices for fence materials. You could put up a stone wall, block wall, brick wall, wrought iron, wood, or chain link. If you got creative you could combine a couple materials and get a fence/ wall by putting wrought iron on top of a brick base or wood panels between pilasters of block or stone.

Today the number of choices and alternative materials has exploded. Plastic, aluminum, and man made stone have given the homeowner a plethora (see, a college education can pay off!) of choices to choose from.

I am going to try to sort through some of the more popular choices for you based on affordability, difficulty of installation, looks, and durability. Hopefully this will make your choices clearer and easier to make.

It's hard to turn around these days without being bombarded with information on being "green." There certainly are many good reasons to adopt ecologically-friendly habits, but why not do the things that both contribute and save money?

I recommend that you start with another offering of mine: a number of ways to conserve water around your home. Then, combine those tip with some additional ideas, some of which you may not have considered as realistic for your residence, such as the solar hot water heating panel pictured at the right.

First, some suggestions, via the gallery.

Gallery: "Green" your home -- 27 ways (OK, maybe a couple more) to help Mother Nature and save a buck.

• 1/8-inch cracks--use concrete patching compound, concrete caulk, or a bottle of pre-mixed patching compound.
  

• 1/4-inch cracks and wider--choose between 1) concrete caulk, 2) pre-mix, or 3) a sand and concrete patching combo method. This last option involves packing a layer of sand into the crack, then covering it over with concrete patching compound.
  

• Protective work gloves
• Mask and/or goggles (if you expect to create a lot of dust)
• Screwdriver or chisel
• Wire brush
• Broom
• Garden hose
• Concrete patching compound
• Masonry trowel or putty knife
• An old bucket or other container in which to mix the patching compound