Pennsylvania stone wall project...:)

[Tollster]

Just finished terracing 2 hills in my yard using Pennsylvania fieldstone. 39 pallets at 3000lbs apiece. Highest point on walls is about 48" with and average of 36". I hired some of the hands that pick it from the fields. After looking at how they stack the pallets, I figured it was better than I can do. Price was 20.00 a pallet for building the wall. They put 3 slate stair ways in and 1 bench. It would have taken me a very, VERY, long time to do on my own(120,000 LBS of rock). After laying out the curves with a garden hose, I marked the line with ground marking paint, then cut the leading edge using a flate spade. I then removed the sod from the trench area using my BX 23 BH to a depth of about 3-4". Leveling the Backhoe with the outriggers to ensure the base was level for the first course.
The 5 hands laid 17 pallets in 7 hours the first day, the 22 pallets in 6 hours the following weekend. Seemed I held them up the first day using the backhoe...go figure?
My wife and I are very pleased with the wall, and the price. We threw in a nice tip, a charcol grill fired meal, plenty of gatorade, and a bottle of mezcal.

 

[srossman]

Just finished terracing 2 hills in my yard using Pennsylvania fieldstone. 39 pallets at 3000lbs apiece. Highest point on walls is about 48" with and average of 36". I hired some of the hands that pick it from the fields. After looking at how they stack the pallets, I figured it was better than I can do. Price was 20.00 a pallet for building the wall. They put 3 slate stair ways in and 1 bench. It would have taken me a very, VERY, long time to do on my own(120,000 LBS of rock). After laying out the curves with a garden hose, I marked the line with ground marking paint, then cut the leading edge using a flate spade. I then removed the sod from the trench area using my BX 23 BH to a depth of about 3-4". Leveling the Backhoe with the outriggers to ensure the base was level for the first course.
The 5 hands laid 17 pallets in 7 hours the first day, the 22 pallets in 6 hours the following weekend. Seemed I held them up the first day using the backhoe...go figure?
My wife and I are very pleased with the wall, and the price. We threw in a nice tip, a charcol grill fired meal, plenty of gatorade, and a bottle of mezcal.

Where are the pictures?

 

[tlbuser]

Price was 20.00 a pallet for building the wall. They put 3 slate stair ways in and 1 bench. It would have taken me a very, VERY, long time to do on my own(120,000 LBS of rock). The 5 hands laid 17 pallets in 7 hours the first day, the 22 pallets in 6 hours the following weekend. We threw in a nice tip, a charcol grill fired meal, plenty of gatorade, and a bottle of mezcal.

20.00 a pallet ??? How far into Pa. are you? It's ten times that much locally Good for you to recognize the extra effort the "hired help" gave you.

BTW, where are the pics??

 

[riptides]

Crap. At THOSE prices, I'll pay for the hotels and meals for their families. And I am only a state away.

Unreal.

I just had qutes of 2.5k-4k to lay flagstone. Just lay it. The area is prepared and the materials are on site.

This is a three day job - MAX, with a crew, two days.


Guess what I am doing in my spare time.


-Rant.
-Mike Z.

 

[kubuddha]

Tollster, what is the price per pallet and where do I buy the stone? Post some pictures!

 

[Tollster]

I have pics on my home computer, I had to merge the pictures in photshop due to the length of the wall. I looked around at the local stone yards at pallets and they wanted 139.00 per pallet for 3000lbs. The I was out riding my motorcycle in the country and saw where they where harvesting the stone from a local farm. I stopped in and asked how much a pallet if they load and I haul. Price was 80.00 a pallet. Thats where I met the workers and hired them on as they where off memorial day weekend and the following saturday.
I made allot of trips but cut out allot of overhead and the middle man...Total was around 4k for 260' of wall install. I backfilled on my own with 2b, roughly 16 tons. Still waiting for my account to stabilize before I order the topsoil triaxles.
My wife was apprehensive about the second wall, but at that price I had to move. Funny thing is, those hands had never built a wall before. I cannot wait for ya''ll to see the pics. I watch them from a distance and they did not pick up the first rock they came to, they actually found the ones that fit, which is why I wanted to show some courtousy. If I had hire someone else I kind of feel like it would not have been as nice and 4 times as much. Customer service seems to be lacking aorund these parts. Close to wilkes-barre red-rock area in NEPA.
Heres the pics I promised.

 

[srossman]

WOW. It looks to me like they did a great job. The wall really sets off the rest of the area. Nice looking property you have there.

 

[BTDT]

Very nice. Pond pic looks real peaceful. Any plans for a gazebo or something down there? Were the guys that layed the stone masons or something, a stone and cement gazebo there sure would be nice.

 

[Dog Lover]

Fabulous looking job on the walls. Very nice.

 

[Tollster]

Thanks guys, it was a good find and I often do not have much luck with finding much help. We would like to put a gazebo type structure over the seat and grow some wysteria. Along with some type of japanese garden and trees. Both hills are full sun, well drained shale type. So we have had little luck growing much. You can see the grass is burned and its only early june. On the upper wall we plan on screening out the neighbor with some evergreen type shrubs and trees. I would like to have a couple of ordimental evergreens and perhaps some red twig dogwood to liven up the winter scene. Then we plan on placing a quit bench in the middle of the upper wall overlooking the yard. IIts hard to see how massive the walls are from tjose shots as theres nothing to really reference in the pics. Here are a couple more of the finer detailed work.

 

[crbr]

All around nice looking place you have. The wall is really pretty. You did indeed get a uniquely inexpensive wall.

Stone like that is about $US250 per nugget (round wire enclosure, not even the size of a pallet that I envision by your description). Labor? it's expensive here and very shoddy to say the least.

I'm not sure I'd use space like that for a gazebo... I'd have to have a full-sized cabin with a porch and some indoor ammenities...

 

[archerynut]

Project looks great!!! Fine looking work that was done there.

On another note, your pond looks great. How do you keep the algae under control. Having a heck of a time with the pond here in SW PA.

 

[VABlue]

Oustanding work! In VA that stone would be about $400/pallet. Don't even ask for the labor... That's a nice place you have, you should be proud to show it off.

 

[Tollster]

Thank you my friends for the kind complements. We live very rural and no family in the area so its very nice to hear.
To control the algae in the pond I use copper sulfate in the powder form. I try to give the pond a stiff shock in the early spring when the water is clear and weeds are still forming. You MUST excersise extreme care during the application as it displaces the oxygen and will kill old, and small fish, as well as the croakers that I love to hear at night. This pond is about .25-.33 acres and averages about 3'. I only use about 1 small maxwell can of sulfate. Mix it thourghly in a pale and spray into the pond SPreading the use over a couple of weeks is a good practice.
I also use aquashade available at local farm supply shops. Farm and family, agway etc... Aquashade is friendly to use and will not kill. Its a very dense form of food coloring in colors found in natural waterways. When used in high doses ( Which I would recommend if you have allot of algae) it limits the amount of sun to the lower depths, thereby preventing photothynisis. Then use a leaf rake to clean up the algae as it will float to the surface. Try to do this on windy days when it sweeps to one side for less effort.
In these shots the pond is really a mess, I only had given it the sulfate, but recently used the aquashade and the results are very dramatic. 1 gallon of aquashade runs about 38-44.00. 1/4 gallon will suffice at first for a pond my size.
My lab swims in the pond often so I am very leary of any pesticides.
On that note I would like to add in very extreme cases if you have weed growth in the water alone the shores, I have used Roundup. Mixed according to the instructions. There was a study performed some years ago by the U of South Carolina in the use of aquasides. They found that Roundup was a manufacturer of the leading aquaside they used. They performed a chemical breakdown of the more expensive aquacide, and the agricultural family type weed killer Roundup. The analasis was the same for each ingredient. The only difference was the label and price. I think one may be able to find MDS sheets on line for comparison. Anyway I have used round up in the past, in very limited applications due to my dog and other friendly critters I find nearby. I have not forgotten the agent Orange use during the nam campain, and kind of feel round up is almost identical. so the long term exposure is still under question..at least to some.

 

[dtd24]

What a nice quiet looking place you have. Beautiful wall!!! It's all loose fit right? No mortar? How about a footing? Gravel?

Just asking because I have a ton of shale on my property and was thinking of starting a project alike yours.

Think you could send those guys up to me for a week or so?

 

[mjarrels]

Dang... that stone wall is so heavy that you may have screwed up the earths rotation? NICE job!

mark

 

[Tollster]

What a nice quiet looking place you have. Beautiful wall!!! It's all loose fit right? No mortar? How about a footing? Gravel?

Just asking because I have a ton of shale on my property and was thinking of starting a project alike yours.

Think you could send those guys up to me for a week or so?

Yes, it is loose, no base prep besides cutting the sod and a wide trench with the back hoe. The ground is well compacted and has a high drainage. The previous owner used to work for the DOT, so he filled in allot of the yard`with the road gravel and ditch scrapings. Also by the pond the hill has a shale content about 6" down at most, I think there may be a shale ledge there somewhere, fortuately I did not get into it on this job. Backfill was 2B stone tapered in to the hill, to a height of within 4-6" of the top (16 tons total, 8 trips with trailer). This also filled in some of the stone gaps in the walls tightening it up some.

 

[EddieWalker]

Very impressive. One of my favorite things is a dry stacked wall that follows the contour of the land, and yous does just that!!! When done right, it looks like part of the landscape and becomes a thing of beauty. Your wall is all that and then some!!!!!!

Congratulations and thank you for sharing,
Eddie

 

[Dog Lover]

Sure got a beautiful property! How many acres do you have? Looks like the kind of property one wouldn't want to leave. I like the pond too, any fish in it?

 

[Cliff_Johns]

Well, that's a fine looking section of wall. There seem to be a lot of places where two stones come together right over the joint below and even over two joints below. Not perfect, but for a lot of walls it doesn't really matter. A dry-laid wall is a beautiful thing to see, and the price you paid is amazing.

I wonder how long ago the farmer had to plant the pebles to get all that rock. That's a long term crop.

Cliff