Retaining Wall Design

What do you think of when you think of "The Look that Defines New Hampshire"? Does your mind's eye bring up images of driving along a road lined with old stone walls? You're not alone. New Hampshire stone walls are often thought of as the quintessential look of New Hampshire. Stone walls were quite practical in the old days. When the farmer cleared a field, stones were everywhere. After all, this is the "Granite State". The stacked stone walls served a dual purpose in that it was a handy place to stack the removed field stone from the fields as well as mark the boundaries of the land. These stone walls are beautiful, and to look at one gives you a little taste of the history of that place. Today, we build stone walls for many reasons.

Often times, we just need a retaining wall design. When there are a lot of choices out there for retaining wall construction materials that you could make your wall out of, which choice would you make? Sometimes people choose one of the many styles of manufactured concrete block system walls, or even go with a timber wall, but most people that we talk to around this part of the country want to own one of their very own "New Hampshire Stone Walls". Stone is a beautiful and durable choice for retaining wall constructions. Stone walls can vary in appearance too. The walls can have as many looks as the mind can imagine. They can have interesting shapes, terraces, stone steps going through them, and even be used along a shoreline. The walls can be built out of rounded shaped stones or blocky shape stones. The list of possibilities goes on and on. When a retaining wall design is not needed, another reason to build a "New Hampshire Stone Wall" would be just for the looks. Stone walls are beautiful when built as a "freestanding" feature. In other words, they don't need to be retaining any soil on one side. The wall may even include a "cap stone". One of the most fun ways to design a freestanding wall is to make it a "bench-height" wall, and have a capstone on it. The cap can be used as additional seating space if this wall is built next to a patio. This same wall could also have pillars at the ends which really makes a visual statement. The pillars are a great place to incorporate some outdoor lighting. The old stone walls that were at one time built at the edges of the farmers fields are a type of freestanding wall. Maybe you want one that looks like these. Nothing says "we've finally arrived" at our New Hampshire home like driving past your very own New Hampshire stone wall and turning into your driveway at last.