Stone walls add timeless natural beauty, privacy, and stability to any landscape. They’re traditionally built by hand over a few weeks, but prefabricated stone walls might be a good choice if you want a more efficient alternative.
This Old House‘s Roger Cook visits Troy Guinther’s stone yard, Natural Stone Wall Solutions. Then, Kevin O’Connor joins Cook to help demonstrate the installation process.
Traditional vs. Prefab Stone Walls
Building stone walls by hand is a labor-intensive process. You’d have to prepare a foundation, lay a base course, carefully stack and fit your stones, fill gaps, and check for proper drainage before capping the wall.
Prefabs, on the other hand, keep quality and appearance consistent. They cost 25–50% less than most stone and veneer walls, and according to Guinther, they can also be installed 25 times faster. “For a job which would probably take you two to three weeks at least on site, we’re going to be able to come and install it that morning,” he says.
Building the Stone Wall
Prefab walls are available in multiple stone types, from Rockport granite to New England flat. Once you choose one, the team builds and reinforces the wall section by section before shipping it to your home for installation.
Choosing the Stone
Guinther’s client chose New England round fieldstone, which is one of the many reclaimed options he provides. “We use completely natural bulk fieldstone from old farmsites. New developments, they save all the old walls,” he comments. Reclaimed stone is both more eco-friendly and complements the natural environment.
Wall Construction
Masons at the stone yard use a proprietary process to build the wall with molds and forms. Each prefab section weighs about 6,000 pounds.
Once everything’s in place, workers reinforce the wall with a grid of #5 rebar and pour 4,000 psi (pounds per square inch) concrete on the back of the wall. Each wall piece also comes with a geogrid detached at the time of installation, which can help reinforce and stabilize the underlying soil.
The walls are constructed using completely natural bulk fieldstone sourced from old farm sites and new developments, where crews salvage stone from old walls. For the This Old House project, the homeowners selected New England round fieldstone. As Troy, the prefab stone wall builder, explained to Roger Cook during a visit to the stone yard: “All of our walls are built with molds and forms. It’s a patent process.” The masons carefully set each stone face-first into the forms before the concrete backing is poured.
Pro Tip: Roger Cook, This Old House landscape contractor, emphasizes that site preparation for prefab walls is identical to traditional construction: “The same as if we were building it in place. We dug down 2 ft. We put in three quarter inch stone and we really compacted it. That’s gonna give us good drainage and this wall is not gonna move.”
Transportation and Installation
The prefab sections are transported to the job site on specially equipped trucks. Guinther developed a custom lifting frame that allows installers to take each section from the back. By leaving the stone face and top alone, they can preserve the stone’s natural moss and patina.
Pro Tip: Troy, the prefab stone wall builder featured on a This Old House project, explains the dramatic time savings: “For a job like yours, which would probably take you 2 to 3 weeks at least on site, we’re gonna be able to come in and install it that morning, and that’s gonna save some time and money.”
Installing the Stone Wall
Site Preparation
Preparing a prefab stone wall is similar to preparing a scratch-built wall. You or your installer will mark the wall’s location with chalk lines, then dig a 2-foot-deep trench for a foundation. Finally, they’ll add and compact ¾-inch stone for drainage and a solid base.
Pro Tip: This Old House landscape contractor Roger Cook stresses that groundwork matters more than anything: “Walls don’t fail because of the way the stone is stacked. They fail because of bad preparation.” That’s why thorough site prep — especially proper drainage — is the most critical phase of any wall project.
Wall Placement
The installation process is where the prefab method shines. Guinther’s team lifts each section off the truck with their crane and lowers them into place within the chalk lines.
The team constantly checks and adjusts the wall level for a snug, puzzle-piece-like fit. They’ll also use a tamping bar to backfill more ¾-inch stone around the wall for stability.
Once everything’s in place, Guinther checks for any exposed joints and fills them in with additional rock for a seamless appearance.
