Dry-Stacking: Making It Fit

March 5, 2004

Growing up, Becker was impressed with the mortarless dry-stack techniques utilized by his grandfather, a German-born stonemason. Today, he’s combining those techniques with a variety of stones from around the country and an artistic eye to create one-of-a-kind terraces, pathways, walls and water features for his clients.
Becker explains that his interest in dry stacking dates back to his childhood in western Illinois. His grandfather learned the technique while still in Germany; after coming to this country in the 1920s, he used it from time to time in masonry jobs.
“I saw walls he had done when I was very young,” Becker says. “He would finish the walls and show them to me, telling me that they’d be there forever. As a child, I thought that was pretty impressive.”
As an adult, Becker became involved in the landscape business, although he worked on developing his own dry-stacking technique. When he moved to Colorado in XXXX, he had his first opportunity to show his boss what he could do.
“There were two of us who were going to be doing a stone wall,” he explains. “I started on one end and the other guy started on the other. When we got to the center, my wall was superior, and from that point on, I was allowed to do the stonework. Soon, the whole business revolved around stonework.”
Becker later opened his own business, with an emphasis on the technique that he says is getting to be a lost art. And, while he says he’s happy to work with blueprints if the customer has them, a great deal of his design work is done in his head using the contours of the land and what areas or features of a property he feels need to be brought out.
Much of the secret to a successful installation he attributes to having a good, solid base with which to work.
“It depends on the situation you have,” he explains. “If you doing the work on a hillside, for instance, you need an extremely solid base, although for a short wall or planter there’s no need to pour a concrete footer. If you’re going to have a large wall or something tall, you need to pour a concrete footer to an 18” depth.”
Once the actual dry stacking begins, Becker believes it’s critical to have every stone leveled. To make certain that every stone is level and to achieve a tight fit, he chisels most pieces.
“For all my walls I use a hammer and chisels,” Becker says. “I have carbide chisels that send shock waves through the stone and help it fracture. I may work around the stone on all four sides to get it as close to square as possible.”
Becker’s favorite stone for his projects is moss rock, some of which he may actually pick up at a job site.
“If you put it in a wall, you can’t tell how long it’s been there,” he observes. “It could be 20-30 years, or it could be 500. I like the effect that I’m creating something that looks like it’s been there for a long time.”
For more formal settings, his preference is buff or red sandstone. It also provides a tighter fit, he says. For some visual interest he may also add a vertical feature to what is typically a horizontal installation.
In any case, Becker says the process is slower and more labor-intense than doing an ashlar installation.
“It’s slower than any process using mortar, just because of the leveling involved,” he says. “With dry stacking, if you need to make up a half-inch differential, you have to find wedges or shims. It can be very labor-intensive most of the time.”
However, by keeping gaps to a minimum and making sure every stone is level, Becker is confident he’s creating a wall with some distinct advantages over one that’s created using mortar.
“Basically, my walls should stand forever,” he says. “When you use mortar you can have a lot of cracking with freezing and thawing, but dry stacking allows moisture to exit the wall. Another benefit is if you need to move it for some reason, or take something out, you can disassemble it and then put it back together.”
Because a dry stacked wall or planter can be disassembled, it’s also easy to add on to without making the new work obvious.
The other aspect of Becker’s work in which he takes equal satisfaction is mortarless patio installations with multicolored stone mosaics, in which he also cuts – and sometimes grinds – the stones to shape. Inspired by the beauty of stained glass, he tries to give every client a truly unique patio design.
Regardless of which form of stone installation a client chooses, Becker’s work has developed an artistic and organic reputation that has clients giving him free reign with their projects.
“A lot of my clients, after they’ve seen my portfolio, say, ‘Feel free to do what you like; just make me happy,'’ he says. “I like that because I can be creative.”
And, he feels he’s giving them more individuality, artistry and functionality than mortar-based installations.
“A traditional landscape company may give you a functional patio, but there’s not as much concern about aesthetics,” Becker believes. “I give the client about the same functional patio, but it’s more aesthetic – there’s a lot more to look at. My clients would rather have more craftsmanship. They enjoy the outcome of my work.”
In the near future, Becker hopes to take his work beyond the walls and planters he’s doing now into doing larger freestanding walls with window areas or doors going into gardens and parks. Longer term, he hopes to take his dry stacking skills further into the realm of art.
“I would like to go toward more of the pure art forms with sculpture work,” he says. “That’s what I’m working towards.”
Becker also hopes to teach his techniques to his son.
“He needs to be old enough to tote the stones around,” says the father. “Right now he’s 12 and he thinks it’s really interesting how I get it to fit. If he’s interested I will definitely teach this to my son.”
And, even if his son ultimately isn’t interested, Becker says he’s thrilled to be able to take this bit of Old World craftsmanship and make a living with it.
“I enjoy my work greatly,” he concludes. “It’s hard to convey how much I enjoy it. I’m a very patient person, and it’s difficult at times, but the overall effect is very pleasing to my mind. I’m thrilled by it.”