Natural Stone Walls in St. Louis, MO

A Limestone City

St. Louis was built on limestone, and a lot of it was built out of limestone too. Many older houses in the city sit on rubble limestone foundations, and the garden walls, alley walls and front-yard steps from that period are the same local stone. Next to houses like these, a new wall looks right in limestone and out of place in concrete block.

We build in cut and dry-laid limestone for walls people will look at: along a front walk, framing a porch or entry, holding a terrace beside the drive of an older house.

Dry-Laid, Mortared, and What Goes Behind

Dry-laid stone flexes a little with the ground and lets water weep through the joints, which suits loess and clay. Mortared stone looks cleaner but needs weep holes and a proper footing below the frost line, or freeze-thaw will open cracks within a few winters. Either way, the part that decides whether the wall lasts is out of sight: clean stone and fabric behind the face and somewhere for the water to go. Most bulging old limestone walls we see had neither.

Where a historic wall has only moved, we can often take it down and relay the original stone. For wooded back lots, boulder walls are the more rustic option.

Where Stone Belongs

Stone walls suit older homes in the city and Webster Groves, as well as front yards in Chesterfield and Ballwin, entries on larger lots in Wildwood, and bluff-view yards in Oakville.

Typical timeline Slower than block for the same length. Most of the time goes into fitting each stone.