The best ways to build a rockery wall

A rockery wall can form a major part of your rockery design for aesthetic purposes or play a more practical part in your hard landscaping design. It can be a functional essential in your outside space, whilst still adding a lot of personality in the process.

The prospect of building a rockery wall can seem daunting at first, but fear not! Following this guide and choosing the right stone will make sure that the build is as simple and easy as possible. It will also ensure that your rockery wall delivers the practical or aesthetic functions you want and will guarantee that you can enjoy all that it is has to offer for years to come.

Choose your stone

One of the first decisions you need to make when thinking about building a rockery wall is what stone you want to use. Fortunately, Decorative Gardens has all the solutions you need and is the ideal alternative to searching for hours for rockery stone suppliers near me. Simply browse our selection of rockery stones to buy and make your choice for fast, efficient delivery. Tailor-made choices include Cumbrian Blue Slate Walling. This a mid to dark blue colour premium Gabion walling stone that offers coverage of around 2.75m² per crate.

Lay the footing

Once you have made the decision to buy rockery stone and have chosen where your wall will sit, it is time to lay the footing. This is done in the same way that you would if you were going to build a brick wall.

As a general rule of thumb, a freestanding double-faced stone wall must be at least 450mm wide. Your footing will need to further extend by 120mm on either side. You will need to mark out the footing in order to point out each line that the faces of your wall will follow.

Sort your stones

Once this is done, sort through your rockery stones to find some stones that will form the corners of your rockery wall. These are known as quoins. If there are none that look like obvious choices, you can always use a stone axe or a bricklayer’s hammer to chip it into the right shape. If you do choose to do this, make sure you always wear safety goggles and gloves to protect yourself.

This is also a good time to sort out the stones you want to use at the base of your rockery wall and those which will form the layers as you work your way up. It is really useful to have a decent space to prepare your rockery stones before you start laying mortar, but this will obviously depend on how much room you have to work.

Start with the mortar

Begin by putting mortar onto your footing on your marked lines and set one of your chosen quoins at either end of it. Then, you can start filling in with a line of your chosen stones between the end quoins. You don’t need to worry about the stones being exactly the same height. It is fine to use a mixture of sizes.

Start at the corners

If you have ever created a brick wall, you will know that you need to start by building up the ends and corners first. The same is true when you build a rockery wall or any sort of freestanding stone wall. Use a spirit level and make sure that the quoins are properly vertical.

You then need to stretch out a level line between one end of your wall and the other. This should sit between 300mm and 400mm above your footing. You will need to move this line up your wall as you start to build upwards. This will give you a guide to help make sure that your wall is level when you eventually get to your finished wall height.

One side first

You should always work on one side of your wall at a time. Build one side up to a maximum height of 500mm and then move around to the other side of your wall and repeat the process until it is more or less level with the first side.

You can use ‘jumpers’, which is the name given to large stones. This will alter the course height. There is no need to worry about working from one corner to the other. Working on one side and then the other is the order of the day.

Make it secure

You want to make sure that your wall lasts and so fix metal wall ties for security as you build. These should be fitted at least 900mm apart when it comes to the horizontal plane. On the vertical plane, you will need to fit these ties no more than 450mm apart. Fill the centre area with mortar, as well as small stone off-cuts, as you go.

Capping your wall

You may want to cap your wall using brick or slab. The most popular way of doing this is called the ‘cock and hen’ method and basically involves alternating upright small and larger stones. Use mortar to hold these in place and scrape away any excess before it is completely dry.

If you're looking for high-quality rockery stones, take a look at our range at Decorative Gardens today.

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